James Ezra Pittman, Sr., was released from the pains of this world on the 15th of December 2024. Jimmie was born in DeQueen, Arkansas, on the 11th of June 1949, to his mother Fretta Belle Bang Pittman and his dad Troy Lee Pittman, Sr
Jimmie was predeceased by his parents and two of his six brothers, Troy Lee Pittman, Jr., and John Charles Pittman.
Jimmie was raised in a large family of ten siblings and learned his good work ethic early. His first paying job was milking cows. He rose very early, did morning milking, went home and cleaned up for school. He also did the evening milking, then home for his chores. He had no time to do his schoolwork except briefly in class. He married early, just after his 18th birthday and at that time was pumping gas. Because he took off the Friday and Saturday for a honeymoon, when he went to work on Sunday evening for his regular night shift, he was fired. He finally found work on a commercial dairy in Smithville and a week after we married, we moved to the dairy. A day or so after we moved into the house provided by the dairy, Jimmie got sick. He rebounded quickly and worked there for six months before the horse he used to round up the cows threw him and broke his ankle. After he was given a brace to stabilize the ankle, he went right back to work there. However, Jimmie wasn't satisfied with being a dairy farmer for the rest of his life and wanted to better himself. We moved back to the Gulf Coast and he got a job pumping gas, changing tires, doing minor car repairs at his father-in-law's service station. We moved to a tiny two-room house in Danbury until his father-in-law closed the station.
Jimmie immediately found another job in a local meat market. He was given the distasteful job of killing the livestock that the butcher then processed. He quit that job after enduring being continually jolted by a coworker who thought it was funny to jab Jimmie with the cattle prod.
We moved to Alvin next where he found another service station job. He finally decided, at age 19, to take his GED so that he could improve his chances of finding better work.
Not long after obtaining his GED, he found a job for the city of Houston working at the water treatment plant near Pasadena. He worked there for about 18 months, meanwhile becoming a father to our firstborn daughter, Jamie, who ended up marrying John Crawford, a childhood friend. In between, she became mother to a son, Joseph-Michael (Trey) Schaefer Ill, who married Elizabeth Cockrell. They have a daughter Zoey and a son Joseph-Michael (Jobey); and a daughter Allissa, who married Elan Michael Hutchinson, who together had three children, Emma, Skylar and Arthur.
Jimmie's job status continued to improve and as his family started growing he found a betterpaying job with Shell Chemical, studying hard and learning all he could. He worked there for three years as we welcomed a son, James (Jay) Jr, who married Sandi Eiland. They welcomed their children, Quinton James, who married Lee Ann Langham, and they became parents of Anastacia; a daughter, Bethany, who subsequently married Zacharye Mustafa. They are the parents of three children, a daughter Violet, a son Milo and a second son Laith; a third pregnancy bore twin sons who died in utero in mid pregnancy; a second son Reagan, who married Loren Patchell, and they welcomed their son Patch and a daughter June; a third son rounded out their family of four Jeremiah, who is engaged to a longtime friend Krissa Wright. They also 'adopted' a young friend of their daughter, May Liu.
Jimmie quit Shell Chemical after his third serious on-job accident. And we moved to Pasadena. He found a job working at a KFC franchise as manager, but quit after he was held up at gunpoint. He then found work managing a Church's Chicken place. He finally found work that suited him, working for a commercial plumbing company, learning to install water and sewer lines in multistory apartment complexes. He worked there for nearly a year, then burned his eyes gazing with no eye protection at a welder working. At the time we were living in Sheldon. He returned to work after his eyes got better until he got sick and hospitalized.
He lost his job at the plumbing company and we moved back with his parents in Alta Loma (now Santa Fe) until he found work at a dredge just to earn money for gas and car payment. By then, we were living in a small house his family helped him build.
When he couldn't find work anywhere that had benefits, and was soon to father his third child, he joined the Air Force. He worked hard and was assigned eventually to a Top Secret specialty at Carswell AFB (SAC base) in Fort Worth, from which he was several times sent on temporary duty many places out of the country, including Alaska, England, Cambodia, and Vietnam during the Vietnam War's closing months. Since his specialty was electronic countermeasures, and he was also a trained sniper and a trained radio-man, some of his assignments were behind the lines, working alongside Army Specialists. He achieved the rank of Sergeant within two years, and was honorably discharged, and ultimately, decades later, qualified as a 100% disabled veteran.
After the birth of his third child, a daughter Deborah, who is now married to Clint Haffelfinger, he graduated basic training and was stationed in Biloxi, for training. Debbie had four children, including first-born son, David Robinson; daughter Samantha Hubert, who was adopted by Jimmie's sister and brother-in-law. Samantha is mother to Eli, Marcus, Ezekiel and Kelsie; second son Johnathan Collard, who has three children, Jayden, and twins Eliza and Elijah; and third and youngest son Zachary Gage Ammons.
Jimmie next worked for a plumbing company in Alvin where he was able to obtain his journeyman plumbing license. He next went to work for Brown & Root Marine where he was foreman of a crew of men who maintained all the water, sewer, oxygen lines in the marine yard, as well as earning his water treatment certification, which qualified him to run the water treatment facility for the company. He also oversaw all the plumbing to the restrooms.
During his time at B&R, he earned his Master plumbing license and did part-time plumbing on the side with our own company, Paladin Plumbing. After he was injured severely in 1983, B&R retired him a year later and he was totally disabled and could no longer work.
We moved to Deer Park where we opened a plumbing company. Jimmie was a member of Deer Park Church of God for six years, where he assisted the pastors with many church projects and earned the respect of everyone there. During this time our daughter Jamie's long time friend Sheri became part of our family as well.
While living in Deer Park, Jimmie gained custody of his grandson and has been a loving caretaker of David for the past 34 years.
Jimmie was a member of the DAV as well as a lifetime member of the NRA.
Jimmie is survived by his wife and helpmeet of 57 years, Debbie, but also all his children-Jamie (John), James (Sandi), Debbi (Clint) and "adopted" daughter Sheri Maag Howard, 10 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren previously mentioned above.
He has four surviving brothers, Bill Pittman (Vickie) of Santa Fe; Mark Pittman (Sherry) of Santa Fe; Tim Pittman (Michelle) of Crosby; and Terry Pittman (Tina) of Weatherford; sisters Betty Miller (Tom) of Palestine; Faith Bridge (James); Nancy Anderson (James) of Palestine; and Tammye Hubert (Tom) of Palestine.
He is also survived by more nieces and nephews than you can count, as well as great-nieces and great-nephews.
His funeral services will be held at 11:30 AM on Friday, December 20, 2024 at the historical white chapel at Salado United Methodist Church in Salado , with his burial to follow at Cook-Walden Capital Parks Cemetery in Pflugerville, Texas.
Friday, December 20, 2024
11:30am - 12:30 pm (Central time)
Salado United Methodist Church
Friday, December 20, 2024
1:00 - 2:00 pm (Central time)
Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home & Cemetery
we will be escorted to the cemetery by police escorts from the funeral service
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