Mark D. Jackson
Obituary
Former Ninilchik resident Mark D. Jackson died Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004, in Yuma, Ariz. He was 73.
Services were held in Yuma.
Mr. Jackson was born Feb. 2, 1930, the 11th of 16 children born to Frank and Martha (Sand) Jackson in Bemidji, Minn. He attended Carr Lake Grade School and Bemidji High School.
He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and was honorably discharged in 1951.
On Sept. 20, 1952, he married Darlene Melchert. Together, they had five children. In 1960, the family moved from Bemidji to Ninilchik, where they stayed until 1976. While in Alaska, Mr. Jackson worked at a variety of jobs to support his family, including as a heavy equipment operator, commercial fisher, carpenter, truck driver, farmer and rancher.
"Through all of that, he raised a family a family that would all wholeheartedly agree that there was never any doubt that he loved them totally and unconditionally," his family said.
In 1976, the family returned to Bemidji, where the last of the children graduated from high school.
Mr. Jackson spent the next several years in Minnesota and Alaska until 1986, when he and his wife moved to Arizona.
Mr. Jackson is survived by his wife, Darlene; children, Jody Kay Marker and her husband, Jim-Bob, Mark Jeffrey Jackson and his wife, Dawn, Kimberly Joy Lindsey and her husband, Doug, Scott Dwain Jackson and his wife, Lisa, and Frank Herbert Jackson and his wife, Melinda; 20 grandchildren; four brothers; and five sisters.
Arrangements were made by Sunset Vista Funeral Home in Yuma.