Douglas Wilkinson

DOUGLAS WILKINSON, age 89, of Jacksonville, passed away Saturday, March 5, 2011 at Springhill Baptist Medical Center. He was born Oct. 2, 1921 in Parhams, La., (Catahoula Parrish) to the late Roger Price and Sarah Bernice Wilkinson. He married his wife, Lois, in 1946. He was a member of Second Baptist Church in Jacksonville. Mr. Wilkinson was a Realtor and owner of Doug Wilkinson Realty in Jacksonville for 38 years. Before work in the real estate business, he retired as a master sergeant after 20 years in the Air Force. Serving in WW II, he was a member of a B-24 bomber plane crew based in England, serving as a radio operator and machine gunner. In 1953, he was a member of communications at a military base in Korea during the Korean War. He taught the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Southern Methodist University in Dallas for three years. He was re-stationed in 1959 at Little Rock Air Force Base to train personnel and lived on base. He moved off base into the city in 1962, when he retired from service. After joining the Lions Club, a friend offered Wilkinson an opportunity to work at a real estate office. He accepted that challenge and took his real estate exam, passing it and becoming licensed in the business. Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Lois Wilkinson; children, Betty Phillips, Michael and his wife, Donna Wilkinson, Pamela and her husband, Rick Pruett, and Penny and her husband, Mike Dietz, all of Jacksonville, and he was preceded in death by a son, Alvin Wilkinson; grandchildren, Pamela and her husband, Franklin Wilson, Neil Phillips, Jason and his wife, Liani Wilkinson, Joshua and his wife, Lindsey Wilkinson, Steven and his wife, Kristen Pruett, Sarah and her husband, Mike Cantrell, Lindsey Dietz, and Leslie and her husband, Jarrod Watkins, eight great-grandchildren, and a sister, Saranell Hunt of Monroe, La. Funeral services will be 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at Second Baptist Church in Jacksonville with Reverend Steve Walter and Reverend Ron Raines officiating. Interment will follow in Chapel Hill Memorial Park in Jacksonville. Visitation will be 5:30–7:30 p.m., Monday at the church. Arrangements are by Moore's Jacksonville Funeral Home 501-982-2136. Please sign online guestbook at www.mooresjacksonvillefuneralhome.com.