Jim Pepper will always be a husband, father and grandfather. He passed on Monday, March 7, 2016, in his home with wife, Peggy, at his side. Services celebrating his well-lived life will be held at the Blanco First Baptist Church in Blanco, Texas at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 10, 2016.
James Notley Pepper was born in Weston, Missouri on April 11, 1947. He was the son of tobacco farmers, Mary and Jesse Pepper. He grew up enjoying hunting, fishing and working on the family farm. He had two sisters, Sandy and Mitzi and one brother, Ben. The Pepper home was a home to all. Jim's parents frequently fed, housed and "cleaned" kids from all over Platte County, Missouri. There were 51 students in his graduating class of 1965 from West Platte High School. He played football, ran track, wrote poetry, and starred in the one-act play.
Jim attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO, where he studied Journalism for three years. His senior year he changed his major to Agricultural Economics. According to Jim, "I changed my major because of all the long haired, un-showered, pot-smoking, liberal students in my Journalism, classes." After graduation, Jim joined the United States Marine Corps. He served our nation as an officer (2LT and 1LT) during the Vietnam War. After his tour of duty, Jim was honorably discharged from the Marines (CPT) and he returned to Weston, MO, where he owned and operated his own tobacco farm.
Jim was a decorated Marine. He was selected to attend the prestigious Army Ranger School by Lt. Oliver North. Jim served an interesting tour of duty in Southeast Asia in 1972 during which time he was in and out of six different countries including Vietnam. Because of Jim's God given take charge personality, he found himself being handpicked for special assignments and saw action with seven different units. Jim earned a Purple Heart for combat wounds received in South Vietnam during the Easter Offensive. For more than 40 years, Jim has had the privilege of meeting hundreds of fellow Vietnam Vets. Jim was a frequent guest speaker to civic organizations, history classes, and social gatherings. Jim graduated from Ranger School, and he kept his dignified, but well-worn "Ranger tabs" in a shadow box in his outdoor office that he called his "hooch."
In 1983, Jim moved to Blanco, Texas. He brought his wife, Peggy, and his sons, Chris and Ladd. Jim flourished in Texas. He made new friends. He embarked on a professional business career. And Jim hunted ducks---he hunted them from Dalhart to Laguna Madre, from El Campo to Zapata. Just to be clear, Jim fished and hunted his entire life. He joined Ducks Unlimited at age 14. He paid his memberships using the $10 he earned while working tobacco for 10 hours. Jim was an expert shot with a pistol, rifle and shotgun thanks to his Dad, big Brother Ben, and the United States Marine Corps. Jim hand-carved and painted more than 40 duck decoys. To this date, he's maintained a collection of more than 1,000 decoys.
Texas proved to be fertile ground for Jim's entrepreneurial spirit and young family. Jim became a real estate developer building RV parks near Canyon Lake and Lake Fork, Texas. He and Peggy had a third son, John James. Jim's gift for business---a gift Aggies call "rural entrepreneurship"---meant that Jim owned and operated everything from a tobacco warehouse with a hundred employees…down to a bait stand with one…himself! Jim was a successful real estate broker, and he eventually retired from International Business Exchange in Austin, Texas after 25 years. Jim became an award winning outdoor writer, and his "Not Your Ordinary Fishing Stories" was named the 2011 Book of the Year by the Texas Outdoors Writers Association.
In addition to his four biographical books, Jim had a few "other things" published. He wrote a poem entitled "Damn, War Ain't Purty" that was published in his high school year book. Always one for irony, a second article, one condemning the US Navy for dumping its shipboard trash into the open ocean, appeared in Playboy Magazine in 1971. In Jim's retirement from business, he penned a book series by the name of Not Your Ordinary…Fishing, Hunting, Snake and Vietnam Stories. He traveled signing and selling his books at various art festivals including The Peddler Shows. Duck Camp, USA, his booth and company name, touched many lives during his book-signing journeys. He made new friends at every turn of life. According to Jim, "being an author was one of the most rewarding things he ever did…well, with his clothes on!" Did we mention that Jim was the father of 3 sons and the husband to a very patient wife? In Jim's own words, he was "happily married to a seasoned school nurse, am the father of 3 college educated sons, and have two fine grandsons."
Jim lived in Blanco, Texas, a small town in the Texas Hill Country forty miles due west of Austin. He invested his time and treasure into the hearts and minds, of the young people attending his Sunday school classes in Blanco, Texas. He made time for Panther football---back when only 18 kids suited up. He served on the School Board---when we only had one campus. He had good neighbors---Bill, Carol, Doug, Vickie, Al, Debbie, James and Debbie. He served his church. He loved Preacher. He took kids---all the kids--- to church, the circus, the zoo, to the museum, to movies, and to UT and Aggie football games. He took his sons' buddies dove hunting, duck hunting and goose hunting all over Texas. He took a youth group skiing, too. It was one of his greatest achievements.
Jim fired life's best bullets---emptying his weapons' most precious magazines, draining his fullest canteens, and exhausting his allotted time on this fair planet we call earth in this great State we know as Texas! Please know that Jim enjoyed sharing his life with each of you, his friends from Blanco, his family from Missouri and his brothers-in-arms, the United States Marines. He is preceded in death by his parents, Jesse Allen Pepper and Mary Ashley Pepper; and his brother-in-law Kenneth Kisker, Sr. Jim is survived by Peggy Flanary Pepper, of Blanco, TX, his wife of 34 years; his son, Chris and Rachel Pepper and beloved grandsons, Weston James and Nolan Christopher Pepper, of Dripping Springs, TX; his son, Ladd and Deanna Pepper and grandchildren Ashley, Jordan and Jacie Handberry and great-grandchildren Collyn and Caydence of Blanco, TX; his son, John James Pepper of Austin, TX; his sister, Sandy Kisker of Farley, MO; his brother, Ben Ashley and Sandi Pepper of Lenexa, KS; his sister, Mitzi and Mark Foster of Kansas City, MO; and many beloved nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews.
In lieu of flowers the family request donations be sent to: Gem of The Hills Senior Center, 2233 US-281, Blanco, TX 78606, Wounded Warriors Project, 12672 Silicon Dr #105, San Antonio, TX 78249, or the First Baptist Church, 1200 4th St, Blanco, TX 78606.