James C. Arnold

James C. Arnold, The Good Shepherd

Today, we mourn the loss of our Family Patriarch, James C. Arnold, “The Good Shepherd.” As a young boy, James mastered the lessons taught to him by his beloved parents, James, and Bertha Arnold. As the oldest son of eleven children, he understood his expected responsibility to his family to learn life’s lessons from his parents, his teachers, his church, and his community. So, he became a role model of goodness, loyalty, reliability, and leadership, to his siblings and to his parents. These qualities were forged in his heart long before he left home in Solgohachia, Arkansas in 1944, at age 17 to enlist in United States Navy. In the Navy, he began regularly sending money home to his parents, to help them support his seven surviving siblings: Rubye, Goldyne, Ruben, Roger, Earl, Lynndyal, and Virdie. As a result of his generous contributions, his parents were not only able to make ends meet, but also able to build a new home.

Even as adults, his siblings could always rely on him when their need was the greatest. Uncle James was a Super Soldier, completing an exemplary 21-year military career. Even though those were years of great civil and racial unrest in this country, he remained steady and disciplined. He was an outstanding chef; a carpenter; and an accomplished gardener- who routinely gave away half of his harvest to others.

A devoted father to Patricia, Marie, Jerry, Cornelius, and Teresa. A loving husband to Aunt Essie Mae. The Family Patriarch. The Super Soldier. The Good Shepherd. The Disciplined Humanitarian. These were his lifelong missions. He never shirked his responsibilities, and for 95 years, he never left his post.

Even now, his words, acts of kindness, consistency, and sacrifice live in his children and his extended family, and reverberate through time, growing larger and louder. His love for us will never die.

God Bless James C. Arnold. May his blessed soul rest in everlasting peace in the presence of God, and his wife. Aunt Essie Mae, his son, Cornelius, his parents, his ten siblings, and his ancestors.

I can only imagine the Lord Jesus Christ saying to him: “Well Done Thou Good and Faithful Servant; Thou Hast Been Faithful Over Few Things, I Will Make Thee Ruler Over Many Things; Enter Thou Into the Joy of the Lord.”

Til we Meet Again.