James 'Jim' Penney

It is amusing to try to do any research on my grandfather, there seems to be conflicting issues with his legal name. To complicate things even more his youngest son, my father, James Edward Penney uses the extra "e" in our family name. Which does show up others places when researching our Geneology. Dewey Penney's headstone in the Arbala Cemetary also has the extra "e".

My dad's birth certificate shows his father's name was "Joseph Asberry Penny". You can also see on his birth certificate where the "ey" was erased and added a "y" instead. My dad's birth certificate is also not an original, he got a new one filed on Sept 14, 1942 when he went in the military. The story on my dad's confusion of Penny/Penney is one of his school teachers taught him to spell his name Penney.

My father was cremated so he doesn't have a burial site. Find A Grave Memorial 119262483

Obituary: James is survived by his wife of 62 1/2 years, Florene Smith Penney, and three of his four children: Joan Elaine Penney Hawkins and husband Roger, Dan Lee and wife Joyce, Eddy Jim and wife Terry. His son Jary Paul predeceased him in 2009. Jary Paul's wife's name is Vickie. James enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941 and served in the South Pacific until 1945, and he enlisted into the U.S. Air Force from which he retired in 1965. He then worked for the United States Dept. of the Army in Missile Flight Safety, from which he retired in 1978. James was a member of the Masonic Lodge for over fifty-four years. He was active in the Sacramento No.24 in Alamogordo where he was Worshipful Master in 1989, and a 32 degree, KCCH member of the Scottish Rite in Las Cruces, and was a Shriner. He was very knowledgeable and well read in US presidents, baseball, automobiles and aircraft, and earned a private pilots license.