Sallaska, James Francis (1918-2003)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2003 Jul 28 p. 11

Birth date: 1918 Oct 8

text of obituary:

JAMES FRANCIS SALLASKA

James Francis Sallaska, 84, of Corn, Okla., died July 6, 2003. He was born Oct. 8, 1918, to Charlie and Lydia (Young) Sallaska, west of Fairview.

When he was a small child his parents moved to a farm southeast of Fairview, where he attended Progressive School through the eighth grade. He then attended Fairview Bible School for three more years, when he graduated. He helped his father on the farm and they ran a threshing crew, threshing wheat and oats.

He was converted and received the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and took it very seriously. He was very concerned that all his family would come to know the Lord, and it was one of the first things he would mention to whomever he met and talked to. He got his brother and then his father to see the need. His mother had been converted earlier, and together all four were baptized and joined Fairview Mennonite Brethren Church in 1936.

In February 1941 he married Miriam Gossen, to whom he was married more than 62 years.

In the fall of 1942, he did alternative service as a conscientious objector in two camps in Colorado. They built roads and large dams.

After his service of three and a half years, they settled on a farm near Fairview and then at Balko for 10 years. After a long period of drought, they moved to their present farm near Corn.

Survivors include his wife, Miriam; a daughter, Darlene Privett and her husband, David, of Henrietta, Texas; three sons, Aldee and his wife, Linda, of Oklahoma City, Orel and his wife, Jeanne, of Corn, and Keith and his wife, Maggie, of McAlester; three brothers, Eugene of Fairview, Charlie of Denver and Vernon of McLoud; six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a sister, Virginia Sutton.