Wednesday, May 4, 2016
James Allen Woodard, Jr., was born July 22, 1935, in Lowell, Florida, the eldest child of the late Cleona Smith Saunders and James Allen Woodard, Sr.
He joins our Heavenly Father, his mother and father, and his sister, Margie Joanne Woodard Coker, and his beloved grandmother, Charlotte Rutledge. He is survived by his loving wife, Ester Proctor Woodard, his daughter, Aircause Denise Woodard, and his son, Joseph Orlando Woodard. He also leaves to mourn his passing his grandchildren: Aviance Ne'co Woodard, Willie Lee Caldwell, Trevon Edwards, and James Allen Woodard, IV, and a host of nieces and nephews. Predeceased by his son, James Allen Woodard, III, and his sister, Joanne Woodard, he will also be missed by his surviving sisters, Thelma Green Crawford (Orlando, Florida) and Eleanor Saunders Towns (Westminster, Colorado).
"Woody," as he was fondly known to friends and family, attended West Rockford High School in Rockford, Illinois, and completed General Education Equivalency requirements as a member of the United States Air Force where he was last stationed at Lowry Air Force Base; he was honorably discharged as Airman First Class. He used his Veteran's benefits to complete the gunsmith course at the Colorado School of Trades in Lakewood. An avid hunter and fisherman, "Woody" also held the distinction of being Colorado's first and only Black gunsmith and was the proud owner and proprietor of Big Woody's Shooting Shop in East Denver.
For 38 years he worked for the City and County of Denver's Sanitation Department; he was the first Black Heavy Equipment Operator, a position from which he retired. "Mr. Woody" was the good-humored patriarch of his family, a warm and loving person especially devoted to his to his grandchildren. He was a respected citizen of his East Denver neighborhood, a man who will be dearly missed by the family and friends who love him dearly and whose lives he has truly touched and irrevocably changed.
