Joe Lane Jr.

Joe Lane, Jr, 80, of Amarillo, Texas passed peacefully from this life on February 8, 2026.

Joe Lane, Jr was born to Margie Mae (Lawson) Lane and Joe Lane, Sr on September 2, 1945, growing up primarily in the Oklahoma panhandle. Joe graduated from Guymon High School in 1963, and later graduating from Oklahoma State University with a degree in chemistry. Throughout Joe’s adult life, he lived in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, the latter where he met, and later married, his wife of 47 years, Carol (Turner) Lane. Joe and Carol made their home in Amarillo, Texas, where they lived happily ever after until Joe’s death.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~Henry David Thoreau

Joe was an avid reader, fiction and non-fiction, science fiction, horror, westerns, and historical non-fiction. He loved maps and geography and rarely turned down an opportunity for a drive in the country. Joe also loved music, especially records played on his turntable, a stereo system that he built for fun from what can only be described as a million little parts. Joe excelled in all areas of science and mathematics, which started in early childhood with the chemistry set he used to formulate many scientific experiments in his parents’ basement in Guymon, Oklahoma. Throughout Joe’s life, he was always eager to teach, share, and explain all that he knew and loved about math and science, and really, anything that he knew and loved, helping his granddaughter, Tanna, with her eighth-grade algebra homework, which no doubt delighted both him and Tanna. Joe also loved growing things, vegetables and plants, and many of those plants adorned Joe and Carol’s porch at their Amarillo home, where they enjoyed many evenings, sitting, visiting, and listening to the panhandle winds whistling through their wind chimes.

Growing up, Joe hunted quail and pheasant with his father in the Oklahoma panhandle, but his true love was his love of fishing. Probably not an exaggeration to suggest that Joe would fish anywhere, at any time, if possible. He fished with his father, his kids, his grandkids, his nephews, and numerous friends, but many outings were just Joe and his fishing pole, at Lake Etling in the Oklahoma panhandle, often watching bald eagles soaring above the lake and swooping down to grab a fish from the water. Joe loved the science of nature, as simple as the way the storms would roll in from the West or how atmospheric pressure affected the amount of rain the panhandle received. Joe was always a good source for a daily weather report, which Carol will dearly miss. He loved his grandparents’ farm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, where he and his brother, Terry, spent many summer days helping with the farm and exploring the land and all the beauty and wonder of “no man’s land.”

Joe is survived by his wife, Carol, of Amarillo, Texas, granddaughter, Tanna Maxwell, of Amarillo, Texas, daughter, Kimberly Lane, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, daughter-in-law, Beth Lane, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, granddaughter, Shannon Lane, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, son, Todd Cummins, wife Nan and their children, Jacquie and Ryan, of Michigan, and son, Scott Lane. Joe’s parents, his daughter, Pamala (Lane) Maxwell, and his brother, Terry Lane, preceded him in death.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.

As per Joe’s wishes, there will be no funeral service, and in lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Joe’s name in memory of his daughter, Pamala (Lane) Maxwell, to Harrington Cancer and Health Foundation at https://www.hchfamarillo.org or in Joe’s memory to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) at https://www.nfwf.org