Jack Spruill Kendall

North Augusta, SC – Funeral Services for Jack Spruill Kendall, 98, who entered rest December 20, 2022, will be conducted Friday afternoon at 2 o’clock from the Posey Funeral Chapel with Rev. Andy Menger officiating. Interment will follow in Pineview Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends at the funeral home one hour prior to the service. On Tuesday another member of the greatest generation was called to be with the Lord while surrounded by family. Jack was born on the Fourth of July 1924 to the late James Locke Kendall and Ione Audrey Wortham Kendall. As a teenager, Jack and his buddy, Bobby Gainey, planted over 100 tomato plants. When harvest time arrived Jack and Bobby loaded their wagon with the bountiful harvest and went door to door selling tomatoes. When they tried to sell a large volume of tomatoes to a local grocery store, the manager offered such a low price that Jack informed him they would “Throw the tomatoes in the Pee Dee River” before they would sell them at that price. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, Jack, aged 17, was working with the Georgia Highway department as a Co-Op program with Georgia Tech where he was studying Civil Engineering. While eating breakfast, the news of the raid came in over the radio. The proprietor of the restaurant exclaimed, “All you boys have to go sign up right now!” Jack did not want to slog through mud in the infantry, so he applied to the Army Air Corps, following in the footsteps of his brother Jimmy, to be a pilot. After being assessed, Jack was informed that his reflexes were too slow, washing him out of pilot school. He then enrolled in Navigator school which he completed successfully. Jack was assigned to be a Navigator on a B-24 Liberator in the 31st Bomb Squadron (H) of the Fifth Bomb Group, Thirteenth (Jungle) Air Force based on Samar Island in the Pacific Theater. Jack’s job was to use the navigational tools of the day (No GPS!) to get them to the target and back. The crew flew missions up to twelve hours long at high altitudes at very cold temperatures in a non-pressurized cabin. Their job was to wipe out the enemy’s oil refining capacity to deprive their air force of fuel. The missions were successful because the enemy was only able to put a few planes in the air late in the war. When the war ended in October 1945, Jack returned to Georgia Tech where he completed his Civil Engineering degree. He then joined the Army Corps of Engineers where he wound up in Augusta working on the Clark Hill Dam. While staying here he met Ida Sikes who he wed in 1950. Jack and Ida raised two children as he worked in plants that produced massive pre-stressed concrete bridge beams and girders. After Ida passed away in 2001, Jack later met a special friend, Anna Hoover, who “helped his morale,” as he put it. Jack had a deep religious faith and attended church every Sunday. He began every meal with a prayer. He was a proud member of Post 71 of the American Legion and the North Augusta Lion’s Club where he maintained candy machines to raise money for the blind. He used his engineering skill and expertise to implement gadgets and gizmos that made daily life easier. When mail or a newspaper was delivered, a notification rang in the house. He was popular with his neighbors and everyone who knew him referred to him as “Mr. Jack.” In his last afternoons he relaxed in his garage with three cats who had adopted him. Jack was preceded in death by his parents, James Locke Kendall and Ione Wortham Kendall, twin brother Forrest Virgil Kendall, brother James Locke Kendall and sister Mary Frances Kendall Downing. He is also preceded by his wife of fifty years, Ida Sikes Kendall, and his special friend Anna Hoover. Survivors include son Gordon Locke Kendall and wife Pamela Norton Kendall of Roanoke Virginia and daughter Jacqueline Kendall Selden and husband Samuel Spencer Selden of North Augusta. The family wishes to express thanks to niece Kay Downing Mason, the Neuro ICU staff at Augusta University Health and Gentiva Hospice. Memorials may be made to the North Augusta Lions Club.

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Jack Spruill Kendall

July 4, 1924 - December 20, 2022