James Hatfield Gerkin 1925 - 2018

GERKIN, SKORDAHL

Posted By: Connie Swearingen -Volunteer (email)
Date: 12/22/2018 at 17:34:34

Sioux City Journal
28 November 2018

Hot Springs, Ark., formerly Sioux City

James H. Gerkin, 93, of Hot Springs, formerly of Sioux City, died on Thanksgiving Day 2018. His passing was the start of a new adventure, he believed. A week earlier, he shared, "God willing, I will be with your momma soon."

All are invited to celebrate Jim's life at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, in the community room of West Shores Senior Living Community in Hot Springs. The online obituary, guestbook and memorial tribute are available at www.GrossFuneralHome.com.

James Hatfield Gerkin was born a day before the Fourth of July in 1925, to a small-town beauty from northwest Iowa, Vera, and a preacher's kid who spent much of his youth in Colorado named Virgil.

He met Marjorie Skordahl on a hay rack ride. Jim was not particularly fond of the young man nestled next to her and struck up a conversation with the Scandinavian daughter of a veterinarian and a school teacher. She was Miss Congeniality at Central High School and he was attending East High School in a part of town called Morningside near the meatpacking district. Courting between the two began as the war in the Pacific Theater came to life and they married after the conflict ended.

They started a family. Steve was born in 1948 and Molly followed in 1952, while Jim became a salesman for his father's wood window business, the Gerkin Company. When his father, Virgil, retired, Jim took the reins.

In the winter, the devoted couple often escaped the frigid winters for a week in March, heading south to the hot baths, slot machines and big-name entertainers in Hot Springs. They were hooked. A few years before he and his brother, Tom, sold the company, the manufacturer and his bride bought a fixer-upper on Lake Catherine, then a beautiful home on Lake Hamilton - a home they would cherish for a quarter of a century before settling into the retirement community of West Shores. Marge became ill and lingered. Jim went twice a day, every day, for months to comfort his wife of 65 years. Upon her passing five years ago, Jim and their cat, Daisy, made the best of it.

Diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer in October 2018, Jim was determined to stay in his apartment, surrounded by caring friends, comforted by Daisy and remembrances of Marge.

Jim Gerkin is survived by his daughter, Molly Johnston (Larry, Justin, Libby, Andre, Susha and Ilona); his son, Steve Gerkin (Sue); and Ben Gerkin (Caren, Macy, Maddy and Max), Laura Gerkin, Scott Gerkin (Shelley), Craig Gerkin (Kim), Joan Morris (Frank), Shannon Sullivan (Jane) and Marcia Matson.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Teen Challenge of Arkansas (www.teenchallengear.org).