John Kay Laycock (1854-1932)

LAYCOCK, BENJAMIN, SMITH, MYER, DAWSON

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 7/16/2021 at 17:22:26

From Nevada Evening Journal January 15, 1932 (page 1)

J. K. LAYCOCK IN DEAD AT SIOUX CITY

BODY WILL BE BROUGHT HERE FOR BURIAL--FUNERAL SUNDAY

J. K. Laycock, 78, former resident of Story county for a number of years, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Laurence Smith of Sioux City, late Thursday night.

The boy will be brought to Nevada for interment, leaving Sioux City Saturday morning at 5:20 and arriving here over the Northwestern at 11:35 a. m. on No. 12. The body will be taken to the Morfoot Funeral Home, where the funeral service will be held Sunday afternoon at 2:30, in charge of W. O. Benthin, pastor of Central Presbyterian church. Interment will be in the Nevada cemetery.

Mr. Laycock had been failing in health for a number of years during which time he had suffered from asthma and kindred troubles. Death was caused by heart trouble.

The body will be accompanied by the wife Mrs. Emma Laycock, the daughter Mrs. Smith, her husband and son James, and a sister Mrs. Josie Myers of Marshalltown, who had been at Sioux City assisting in his care recently. Another sister, Mrs. Rusha Dawson of Marshalltown, will be here for the funeral.

John Kay Laycock was a native of the state of Ohio, where he was born January 21, 1854 and would have been 78 years of age on the twenty-first of this month.

He was united in marriage to Miss Emma Benjamin at Council Bluffs, December 8, 1885. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Laycock, the two oldest passing away, while the two living are Merle H. Laycock of McAllyn, Texas, and Mrs. Orla Smith of Sioux City.

The home had been successively at Carroll where he was engaged in the hotel business, then back to Illinois; next in Kansas where he was in the mercantile business and served a term in the state legislature From there they came to Story county where he spent two years in Milford township, then to Nevada in 1895, where he was connected with the publication of the Journal with his brothers-in-law, O. J. and G. A. Benjamin for about two years. From Nevada he went to Des Moines where he established and published the People's Popular Monthly for some time and was later engaged in the operation of a Correspondence school business. From Des Moines he moved with his family to Zearing where with his sons Merle H. Laycock he published the Tri-County News for some years and later served some time in the postoffice.

Of more recent years he and Mrs. Laycock had divided their time with their son Merle H. Laycock and their family at McAllyn, Texas and their daughter Mrs. Smith and family in Sioux City.

Mr. Laycock was a man devoted to his home and family, industrious and resourceful in his ideas and was a man of talent in many respects. Of a cheerful and genial disposition he made many friends and had a wide acquaintance. He became a member of the Evangelical church during the family residence in Zearing.

He leaves besides his wife Mrs. Emma Laycock, the son Merle H. Laycock and family and daughter Mrs. Orla Smith and family, two sisters, Mrs. Josie Myers and Mrs. Rusha Dawson of Marshalltown; two brothers-in-law, O. J. and G. A. Benjamin of Nevada, other more distant relatives and a wide circle of friends.