Jack Wayne Rhodes

Jackie “Jack” Wayne Rhodes was born at home in Yonkers, Oklahoma on June 20, 1942 to James and Rowena Davis Rhodes. He was the fourth oldest child out of twelve brothers and sisters. He graduated from Locust Grove High School in May 1960. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1960-1964 and was stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. Following military service, Jack worked as a welder and boilermaker with Local 592 from August 1964 to February 1983. Some of his most memorable work projects included building the Tulsa Golden Driller and GRDA’s coal towers. He worked as the Maintenance Supervisor at Northeast Technology Center in Pryor from 1985 until he retired in 2007. Jack also volunteered his service on the Chouteau Fire Department from 1985 to 2005 and served as the Fire Chief for those last 14 years. 

 Jack and Carolyn Louise Kaufman Rhodes were married on March 29, 1969 at the First Baptist Church in Tahlequah, OK. They had three children, eleven grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. He enjoyed spending time with his family, cooking, watching crime shows and westerns, and daily Bible time. He attended the First Baptist Church in Chouteau, Oklahoma. His joys later in life were his faith, family, and friends as well as working in the yard and driving his grandkids and granddogs around the neighborhood in his golf cart. 

 He is survived by three children: Jason Rhodes and wife Abigail of Sioux Falls, SD; Jennifer Rexroad and her husband Jason of Chouteau, OK; Jacqueline Stout and her husband Ryan of Chouteau, OK; 11 grandchildren: Ashlan Sullivan, Austin Rhodes, Madeline McNabb, Jakob and Nathan Stout, William Fowler, Max, Ted, Chloe, Ellie, and Lucy Rexroad, and great-granddaughter Beth Anne; his brother Doug Rhodes and three sisters, Carolyn Applegate, Phyllis and husband Leon Adams, and Dorothy and husband Gail DeCamp, and sister-in-law Irene Rhodes. He is blessed with a wealth of nieces, nephews, and cousins. 

He was preceded in death by his wife, Carolyn Rhodes; his parents, James and Rowena Rhodes; brothers Andy, Lee, Randy, Phillip, and James Walter Rhodes; sisters Ruth Brickey and Linda Rhodes Smigiel; brother-in-law Thomas Lee Brickey; and sisters-in-law Reba Rhodes and Wilma Rhodes. 

 A celebration of Jack’s life will be held Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 1:00 PM at his home. In lieu of flowers, his family asks that you please consider donating in honor of Jack Rhodes to either the Chouteau Fire Department, 116 S. Wilder St., Chouteau, OK 74337 or to the Mayes County Blue Star Mothers: Honoring Our Heroes, P.O. Box 1597, Pryor, OK 74362.