James Townson

James Robert Townson 77 of Melrose NM passed away on December 23, 2021, with his family beside him. Funeral services will be held December 2, 2021, at 2:00 pm at the Melrose Church of Christ. with Coy Hunt officiating, Burial will be at Melrose cemetery, with Cody Fullerton, Hayden Trujillo, Barry Allen, Jorden May, Keith Corbin, Chad Robberson serving as pallbearers.
James was born in Vaughn NM March 6, 1944, to Fred and Irma (Clous) Townson. James was 5th out of 6 siblings and the last to pass away. James was a 1962 graduate of Clovis High School. After graduation he joined the Navy and was stationed on the USS Yorktown and served two tours to Vietnam. One of the times he was on leave at home he meets one of his sister friends Frances Robberson and know she was the love of his life. On June 12, 1965 they were married in Clovis NM and have been married for 56 years.
After the Navy, James started his young career at Railway Express as a semi-truck driver. After several moves, he decided to bring his family home to live in Melrose. Soon after that he got a job as a lineman and later became a field engineer for Farmers Electric Coop where he retired in 2001, after 33 years of service. He worked for Dick’s Electric and did several volunteer jobs. Then in 2018 James was elected as the Municipal Judge for the Village of Melrose. He served several years as a 4H Leader helping his girls and Cody and other kids with show projects. He served several years as President of the Melrose Chamber of Commerce, also held other officer positions. With the chamber he was responsible for setting up Old Timers Day in Melrose. Over the years he was also active and served as Eastern NM Housing Authority, CEO of the Veterans memorial in Melrose Park, he worked to get the memorial building out at the Melrose Cemetery, representative for the Eastern NM Tourism Association and served on the AAA Advisory Council. He served as secretary of the board of the Melrose Senior Citizens. He was also a member of the Melrose Rotary Club. Over the years James won several awards from Melrose chamber workhorse to his latest Rotary Citizen of the year 2021.
James had many hobbies over the years. As many of you know he loved to decorate the yard with lights for Christmas. He loved working along with Cody on the 1949 Chevy C10 utility work truck, some of the other hobbies was gardening, building floats, playing golf, horseshoes, corn hole, playing cards or other games with his family. Camping up in the mountains was a love of his, and the trips we all took as a church group to the mountains. James would have wood working projects in the barn from projects for the boys or a craft project for the Girls.
In 1968, James was baptized into Christ, where he served as a deacon, later on as an elder and Sunday school teacher.
James is survived by this wife Frances of the home, daughters Debbie Spriggs of Clovis, Deanna and Neal Trujillo of Cimarron NM, two grandsons Cody Fullerton of Clovis and Hayden Trujillo of Cimarron NM. brother n laws and sister n laws, Bill and Sharon Smith of Wisconsin, Fred Daake of Nebraska, Coy and Gail Hunt of Texas, Dale and Patty Robberson of Oklahoma, Dennis and Nickie Watson of Kansas and several nieces and nephews.
He is proceeded in death by his parents Fred and Irma Townson, sisters Carloyn Lineberger, Linda Daake, Gail Hampton, Janie Smith brother Freddy Townson and son in law Steve Spriggs.