JAMES M. PADDEN

James Matthew Padden (Jim), 90, of Sherwood, Arkansas passed away peacefully on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in care of Arkansas Hospice at the St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock, where his five children shared his last days at his bedside. Jim, the oldest of 12 children, was born to the late Thomas and Francis Padden in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on August 23, 1934.

Jim was predeceased in death by his wife Peggy (Yeager), bonus wife Ellie (Georg Lloyd), parents Thomas and Francis (McConlogue), six siblings; Rose (Dombrowski), Elizabeth (Myers), Thomas, Bob, Eugene, and Nancy.

Jim is survived by his children; Sharon Knippenberg (Mark), Elizabeth Kennedy (Robert), Margaret Patterson (Dave), Michael (Patricia), and Tracy Nolley (Sandy), and siblings; Patricia (Mitchell), Francis (Godumski), Mary (Kuhns), John, and Joseph.

His memory lives on with his grandchildren Ben, Kristine, Jennifer, Jameson, Rob, Carson, Shannon, Erin, Kristopher, Laura, Dana, Samantha, Austin, Nikki, Lauren, Christina, Aaron, Amy, Madison and 30 great grandchildren.

Jim grew up in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania until the age of 15 when he enlisted in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard at Kingston (with his parents’ permission, the birth year had been changed to 1932 on his birth certificate using an ink eradicator) where he was assigned to the 967 th Armored Field Artillery Battalion as an armored-vehicle driver. In 1950 he was discharged, when his true age was discovered, though he subsequently enlisted into the Air Force in 1952 at the age of 17 (with parents’ signature).

The Air Force sent Jim to Guam where he was flying missions from there until the Korean War ended and he was subsequently relocated to Roswell, New Mexico where he met and married his sweetheart, Peggy. After being discharged in 1956 he was hired by Lockheed Aircraft Service training Lockheed mechanics who were converting planes from bombers to weather configurator planes. In 1958 he joined the 452nd Troop Carrier Wing at Long Beach Air Force Base, California as a flight engineer, flying all over the United Stands and Nationalist China until the base closed and he was transferred to March Air Force Base, Riverside, California. He left the Air Force Reserve in 1968 and accepted an assignment as a civilian and moved his family to Manila, Philippines where he was a Department of Defense quality-control inspector in support of the Vietnam War inspecting and test-flying C-7A Caribou transport and the C-130 aircrafts. During that time, he went to northern Thailand and assisted Air America mechanics in repair of a downed C-7A (in Laos). After Jim and family returned to Riverside, CA from the Philippines, he moved his family to Banks, Oregon in 1972 where he and Peggy became heavily active in the community and the St. Francis church.

Jim continued to work for the Department of Defense as a Quality Assurance Inspector (certified radiographic, ultrasonic, magnetic particle Inspector, PT and VIS). His military reserve service lasted until 1976 (McChord Air Force Base, WA); he retired from his government job for the Department of Defense in 1980. Upon his retirement, Jim worked at St. Francis School and Jim’s Supermarket until all his children married and left home. In 1984 Jim and Peggy left Banks and spent the next 15 years traveling across the United States and Canada pulling their 5 th wheel travel trailer. Tired of traveling, they moved to Mainesburg, PA to be closer to his family. They remained in Pennsylvania until they felt it was time to return to Oregon. During the transition to Oregon, they were staying at Jacksonville Air Force Base in Jacksonville, Arkansas visiting their daughter Tracy in Sherwood, Arkansas when Peggy took ill and subsequently passed away in 2016.
A year after Peggy passed on, Jim married his bonus wife, Eleanor (Ellie) Lloyd (Georg). Jim and Ellie continued traveling across the United States and Canada until Ellie became ill and passed away in 2023. Jim then returned to Oregon, first living with his daughter Margaret in Carlton, Oregon, then in McMinnville, Oregon, until the time his health was deteriorating, and he moved back to Arkansas to be near the location where Peggy and Ellie had passed.

There are no words that can express how grateful and blessed our family is to have had such a wonderful example of a dad, sibling, son, grandfather, and great grandfather.

Funeral service will be conducted on Monday, April 7, 2025 at 10:30 am from the Lehman Family Funeral Service, Inc. 689 Hazle Ave. Wilkes-Barre with a Mass of Christian Burial celebrated in St. Leo the Great Church, 33 Manhattan St. Ashley at 11:00 am with Reverend Vincent Dang officiating.  

Friends are invited to join the family from 9:30 am until time of service at the funeral home.

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