James Nelson

1940 - 2023

James Nelson

1940-2023

On Friday, September 22, James died at home surrounded by family. He was his wife's,Toni, true love, dry-fly fishing partner, travel partner, a fan of the British Museum, gardener, dog lover and rock mover at their Wimberley home.

He was born in north Louisiana, but his family moved to Orange, TX so his dad could work on Navy ships during WW ll. His dad opened a bicycle and lawn mower shop during the war and, as a result, James could take apart, repair or build practically anything including 1950's style tricycles for his grandchildren.

He adored and was so proud of his independent, type A daughters, both his natural daughters and those of Toni's for whom he was a true father in all ways but birth. He taught them to drive, change tires and fix push-mower carburetors. Natalie McGehee, Cheri Phillips, Kristen Kassahn and Michelle Downing all patiently listened to his unusual book reviews and moaned at his "dad" jokes.

James was a born salesman and could have sold freezers to Eskimos. He worked in sales and marketing in several industries before he was able to pursue his interest in the technical side of photography as an entrepreneur. He opened the second 1-hour photo developing store,Todays Photo, in the state of Texas, then went on to open 4 more in and around Beaumont where we lived, Orange and Port Arthur, TX.

He then opened the largest privately owned video store, Today's Video, in Beaumont where the town and neighborhoods would gather to give each other recommendations for their next movie to check out.

After finding, thanks to some dear friends, and moving to Wimberley in 2008, he starting building birdhouses from anything he could find as material. This includes wine corks, Popsicle sticks and all forms of cedar. He grew birdhouse gourds, then painted them gold and placed them around the property. His vegetable garden grew the sweetest carrots, tomatoes, spinach and butternut squash. The zucchini was so abundant we had the fattest deer in the neighborhood. Our friends at church locked their car doors so as not to find sacks of zucchini in their back seats.

He enjoyed his years with the Wimberley Lions especially the friends in Concession 1 and those that sat at table one for the meal. They worked hard and laughed a lot on the first shift which for a long time started at 5:30 am.

James enjoyed traveling and was lucky enough to have a group of friends that he and Toni could travel with. His monthly Beer with the Boys while the women talked about books gave him a great outlet to share his special stories and facts.

James is survived by his wife Toni of almost 50 years, daughters Natalie McGehee, Cheri Phillips, Kristen Kassahn and Michelle Downing. His grandchildren include (please note the names),Erin McGehee, James Brendan McGehee, Ally Scott, Danielle Jones, Erica Phillips and Hallie James Phillips. Great-grandchildren are Henry James Jones, James Gideon McGehee, Robbie Jones, Ezra McGehee, Kayden McGehee and James Westley Scott. All the James names really pleased our James.

He had the best sons-in-law he could ask for. Doug McGehee, Eric Phillips and Rob Reed fished with him or discussed gardening or helped him fix or repair things around the house, especially after Toni said "no more ladders!"

The celebration of his life will be held at Wimberley Presbyterian Church at 10am Saturday, September 30, 2023 with a reception at the church afterwards.

In lieu of flowers you may send donations to the Wimberley Village Library or Wimberly Animal Group(WAG).