Jack Sides

Jack Sides, 79, beloved husband, father, and grandfather, of Granbury, Texas, passed away Friday evening, October 3, 2025, in Dallas, Texas.
Services: Visitation will be held Friday, October 10, 2025, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Wiley Funeral Center, 420 Highway 377 East, Granbury, Texas. A funeral service will be held Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. at the funeral home. Burial will take place in Covington, Tennessee; date and time to be announced, coordinated by Maley Yarbrough Funeral Home.
Flowers are welcome. Those who wish may also make a donation in his memory to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Born June 19, 1946, in Brownsville, Tennessee, he was the son of Jack Sides and Evelyn McBride Sides. He graduated from Pine Bluff High School in 1964, where his yearbook quoted the line he would live out for decades: "A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."
Jack served in the United States Air Force, attaining the rank of Sergeant before his honorable discharge in 1971. A highlight of his service came in 1968, when he was a DJ for "Radio Comet" on the AF Korean Network (AFKN) at Osan Air Base, Korea. He met Teresa "Terry" Shedeck shortly after at a bank in Evanston, Illinois, where they both worked; they were married on August 30, 1969, and began a life together marked by love, steadiness, and good humor. Even in later years he still introduced Terry, just three years his junior, as his "child bride," a private joke that never lost its sweetness. In his office he kept a large framed photograph of the Evanston bank where they first met; it remains there to this day, a reminder of the day everything began. Later in life he was baptized in the Catholic tradition; faith remained personal for him, and he lived by plain virtues of kindness, fairness, and devotion to family.
An inquisitive mind and patient hands defined his working life and hobbies. In the 1970s he discovered amateur (Ham) radio and, around the same time, enjoyed model railroads, pursuits that suited his love of tinkering and careful craft. Operating under the call sign WB9YLR, his signal reached friends far and wide-now a Silent Key. He pursued formal study while working, earning a Master of Science in Management from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in 1989. As personal computing expanded through the late 1980s and into the early Internet era, he became the person friends and family called when anything with a plug misbehaved, and he designed web pages for small businesses on the side. In the mid 1990s he kept a simple home page on the Internet that opened with the line, "Do not confuse breathing with living." He believed it. Even as he grew older, his curiosity, generosity, and drive never slowed. Although he met the love of his life up north, his roots were Southern. Tennessee and Arkansas shaped his early years, and he never lost that sense of home. In the 1990s he moved his family from Wisconsin to Texas, and he made Texas his home for more than 30 years. There was one northern allegiance he kept: Chicago sports, especially the Chicago Bears. He liked to say, "My favorite teams are the Chicago Bears and whoever is playing the Dallas Cowboys."
Family came first. For a time, Jack participated in Indian Guides, and he logged countless drives to football and soccer practices and games, cheering from the sidelines, steadying a bike, encouraging the next step, and celebrating every effort. He opened his heart just as widely to the family they married into, loving Kevin and Lori like his own. He also delighted in affectionate nicknames, with Christine as "Pumpkin" and Brittany as "Lil' One," small words that held a lifetime of love, a piece of him they will carry always. He also passed along his own small obsessions-like a shared love of Snoopy-that Christine, Brittany, and the whole family still carry. Whether offering Lori a ride on the motorcycle during a visit, or heading out to fish with Kevin and trade stories between casts, he found quiet ways to say, you belong here. Many of his children's friends regarded him as a second father, the good listener with the easy laugh who made everyone feel at home. He worked quietly and persistently so his family would never have to do without. He and Terry were a team in all things-raising kids, cheering grandkids, and opening their door to friends.
In the early 1990s he returned to a youthful passion, motorcycles, and found lasting fellowship in the Gold Wing Riders Association. Over the next 25 years, he and Terry traveled together through 49 states, an achievement they treasured. Those miles often served others; he rode in Toy Runs, supported Toys for Tots, and joined outreach visits to local children's homes. In time he joked that he had turned to the Dark Side, Harley Davidson, and he spent most of the second half of his riding years on that bike. He kept riding for many years, slowing only as he approached seventy. Terry was his favorite co-pilot, sharing the miles, the maps, and the memories In retirement, Jack also enjoyed fishing, the quiet and the company in equal measure. His greatest pastime, though, was golf. He played several times a week for years, and he will be missed on the course by many. He kept dog biscuits in his cart for a partner's pups who sometimes tagged along, and even for a friendly dog peeking through a nearby backyard fence; it was a small kindness that said a lot. Most of all, he cherished time together. He was happiest playing long, laughing rounds of Uno during cabin getaways, or lounging on the beach at Gulf Shores, Alabama, with his kids and grandkids. He and Terry loved riding and vacationing together, and every December he would happily put on an ugly Christmas sweater, joining the fun with a grin. These were the moments he treasured, simple, shared, and full of love.
Service to veterans remained a steady thread. Jack was active in both the American Legion (Post 492) and the VFW. He served as Post Commander of American Legion Post 492 and helped organize remembrance and support events for veterans and their families. He was also an honorary member of the Marine Corps League. He took particular pride in coordinating the Field of Flags in Granbury, Texas, a moving community display of gratitude. Terry was often there beside him, lending a hand and a smile at veterans' events and community projects. He also believed in cultivating service among the young, proudly sponsoring his daughter's local high school Interact Club-the youth arm of Rotary International-another small way he kept family and community connected. He enjoyed quiet evenings with a guitar and kept friendships strong across years and distance, helping classmates from the PBHS Class of 1964 stay connected. However far he traveled, his heart came home to Terry, the children, and his grandchildren.
Jack is survived by his wife of 56 years, Terry; his son, Sean Sides, and Sean's wife, Lori Galster; his daughter, Christine Smith, and Christine's husband, Kevin; grandchildren, Brittany Sides and Brett Sides; his brothers, Barry Sides, Pat Sides and his wife Sonia, and Clay Sides and his wife April; nephews, Aaron Sides, Jay Sides, and Devin Sides; his niece, Megan Sides; and many beloved cousins, aunts, and uncles.
He was preceded in death by his mother, Evelyn McBride Klein, and his stepfather, Frank Klein; by his father, Jack Sides; by his stepmother, Ruth Sides; and by his niece, Amber Sides.
Jack will be remembered for the opportunities he created for his family, for veterans, for fellow riders, for students, and for friends old and new. His legacy is the love he gave, the service he rendered, and the miles of kindness he left behind.