ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 1, 1990                   TAG: 9004010110
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OBIT-LAFON, J.

LAFON, JAMES B.\ NORTH TAZEWELL - James Blane (Jim) Lafon, age 63, of N. Tazewell, Va., formerly of the Roanoke area, died Friday at a Grundy, Va. hospital. He was born in Botetourt County and was the son of the late Anah Blane and Stella Gertrude Caldwell Lafon, both Craig County, Va. natives. He was self-employed, having founded the J.W.L. Corporation in Tazewell in 1971. He later expanded this to include Empire Sales and Rental Company and currently Owl Erectors, Inc. and Owl Equipment and Supply Corp. He was president and owner of all these corporations. He was a 32nd degree Mason with membership in the Roanoke Masonic Lodge No. 163 A.F. & A.M. of Roanoke, Va. and the Scottish Rite Bodies of Roanoke, Va. He was a United States Navy veteran of World War II, and was presented with the American Area Medal, the Victory World War II Medal, and the Asiatic-Pacific Medal with two stars. He had made his home in the Roanoke County and Botetourt County areas before moving to the Tazewell area in 1974. He was a member of the Glade Creek Baptist Church at Blue Ridge. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one sister, Mrs. Roy (Virginia) Graybill, and two brothers, Edward B. Lafon and the Rev. Robert H. Lafon. Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Jacqueline Thompson Lafon; two daughters, Mrs. Danny (Patty Jo) Lafon Sayers, Tazewell; Mrs. Donald (Pamela) Walk, Jr., Tazewell; two sons, Mr. James Douglas Lafon, Salisbury, Md.; Mr. J. Lindsey Lafon, Alexandria; two sisters, Mrs. Russell (Louise) Zimmerman, Roanoke; Mrs. Robert (Elizabeth) Harris, Troutville; father-in-law, Mr. Douglas H. Thompson, Tazewell; six grandchildren. Funeral services will be conducted Monday at 11:00 a.m. in the Hurst-Scott Funeral Chapel at Tazewell with the Rev. Dan Kelly officiating. Entombment will follow at the Grandview Memory Gardens Mausoleum on the Bluefield-Tazewell Road near Bluefield, Va. Friends of the family will serve as pallbearers. Members of the V.F.W. Barnes-Beavers Post No. 7136 of Tazewell will conduct military graveside rites. An evening Masonic service will be conducted at the Hurst-Scott Funeral Chapel in Tazewell at 7:00 p.m. Sunday. The family will receive friends after 12:00 noon on Sunday at the funeral home. The family suggests that expressions of sympathy be made in the form of a memorial contribution to the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Funeral arrangements by Hurst-Scott Funeral Home of Tazewell, Va. 


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