Jesse "Jess"

David Gillis

Jesse David Gillis was born July 24, 1941, in Mio Michigan to Ernest Hobson Gillis and Lilly Mae Esch Gillis. He passed away at his home on January 1, 2022.

Jesse, or Jess, as many called him, had six siblings—Gene, Joy, Jerry, John, JoAnn, and Jim—and they lived in Mio, Michigan until he was seven. The family moved to Manitou Springs, Colorado and shortly thereafter to Peyton, Colorado, where he grew up working on the family's dry-land farm. At age fourteen he began to work for ranchers in the Peyton and Callahan, Colorado, area and Kansas. Jess always told people he graduated second in his class at Peyton. People were impressed until he told them his graduating class only consisted of him and another young fella. He was quite a wit.

Driving truck was a love of his and probably started with his Pops' old Rio semi-truck. They used to drive it to Denver and load it with day-old bread, which they fed their pigs. When he turned sixteen, he took his driving test in that Rio. When he was drafted into the US Army in 1960 and was stationed in Frankfort, Germany while the wall between East and West Germany was being built, his job was driving ammunition trucks.

After his discharge from the US Army in 1964, Jess—wearing a coon-skin cap—met Mary Bea Bellew in Olathe, Colorado. He had come to her family's home to repair a cistern pump and Mary Bea thought he was special from the first time she saw him. He seemed to be looking her way a lot, too. After that, he wore a cowboy hat when he came into the tiny diner where she was waitressing. She gave him preferential treatment—fresh doughnuts, ice cream in his coffee, and the "Cheeseburger Jess". Other diners wondered why their cheeseburgers didn't look like his. Jess and Mary were married by a Justice of the Peace in Delta, Colorado on August 21, 1964, and stayed married for fifty-seven years. Three daughters were born to their union, Diana Lynn, Sherry Dawn, Patricia (Trish) Ann.

Jess worked on the Blue Mesa Dam near Montrose, Colorado when Mary was expecting their second daughter. She didn't know the risks he was taking until she saw him on the news swinging on a rope while he welded on the sheer side of the dam. At a time when wages were seventy-five cents an hour, he was making fifteen dollars an hour.

Jess was a truck driver for many years. He owned a canary-yellow cracker box GMC "Jimmy" trailer toter, which he used to move mobile homes all over the western United States and beyond. His CB Radio handle was Yellow Bird because of that bright yellow truck. He was incredibly resourceful and could build or repair almost anything, as well as operate any type of machinery. He used his problem-solving skills a lot during those years—from being able to back mobile homes into impossibly tight spaces, to parking a 12x70' mobile home with the trailer's hitch inside the trunk of a Chrysler car. Later he hauled freight all over the United States. Mary was with him as his fellow worrier throughout his truck driving career, first as his dispatcher, flagger, mobile home setter-upper, then as his co-pilot on long hauls.

Jess and Mary raised their daughters on a small farm they bought in 1968 in Clifton, Colorado. They lived there for thirty-two years then in 1999 cleaned up the place—which, considering Jesse's packrat tendencies was quite a job—and moved to Reynolds County, Missouri. They have been constant companions since, working together clearing land, taking care of livestock, building roads, and on many remodeling jobs throughout Reynolds County and surrounding areas. They loved to eat out and enjoyed visiting and friendships created at various eating places. He and Mary made many friends at the Reynolds County Museum, lumber yards, with neighbors, and anywhere a conversation could be enjoyed.

Jess had a sweet tooth and loved eating Mary's homemade goodies, especially doughnuts. He enjoyed fishing with his family and once saved his grandson's life. His grandson had cast out his line too heartily and fell into the lake. Jess was the only one who saw it happen and rushed over to drag the kid out. Once, he got a lot of strange looks as he drove through town in his pickup. He thought it was funny when he returned home and found a bunch of chicken heads tied to his front grill by the grandkids after a chicken butchering session earlier in the day. Jess was fiercely independent and didn't like the government minding his business. He had a lifelong passion for reading and learning and knew a lot of stuff.

Not long after Jess and Mary moved to Missouri, he had a heart attack. One day the two of them were sitting on the side of the bed, and he was fretful and in pain. Outside the window a rainbow arched over one of the pines on the hillside. They always considered that tree a sign of God's hope, and when they decided to log their place a few years ago, Jess instructed the loggers to leave that pine because it was their miracle tree.

Jess is survived by his wife, Mary, his daughters Diana and husband Keith Griffith, Sherry Morris, Trish and husband Jim Hansen, grandchildren Jesse Griffith and wife Sheri, Tucker Griffith and wife Tabitha, Preston Griffith and wife Chantel, Jennie Morris, Alyssa Morris, Andy Hansen and wife Kanaya, Jamie Hansen, Tessa Hansen, and great-grandchildren Riley and Asia'h Griffith, Kendra, Chance, and Ryker Griffith, Kevin and Declan Griffith, and Aspen Hansen. He is preceded in death by one great grandson, Ian Griffith.

Contributions in Jesse's memory may be made to the Reynolds County Museum.

Visitation: Thursday, January 6, 2022, 5-8PM at McSpadden Funeral Home, Ellington, Missouri

Arrangements by McSpadden Funeral Home, Ellington, Missouri