Feb. 1 1926 – Sept. 10, 2013

MONTEREY — Funeral services for James Edgar Finely, 87, a local farmer who died Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013, at his residence surrounded by his loving family will be 10 a.m. Friday at Eva Church of God in Monterey with the Rev. Russell Crum, the Rev. Joey Pepmiller, the Rev. Richard Crooks, the Rev. Daniel Cole and the Rev. Paul Avery officiating.

Burial will follow at Lone Pine Cemetery on Poole Road in Monterey under the direction of Comer Funeral Home in Ferriday.

Visitation will be from 6 until 9 p.m. Thursday at the church.

Mr. Finley was born Feb. 1, 1926, in Parhams, La., the son of James Thomas and Sarah Jane Spinks Finley.
Growing up as a sharecropper’s son during the Great Depression molded Finley into the honorable man he was. Hard labor and an honest dollar was his motto. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served his country for two years, and then returned home to marry Betty Jo Poole and made their living as farmers. They both enjoyed their hard work and the accomplishment of raising four daughters. He was an avid fisherman and trapping in the winter months. After his beloved wife’s death, he spent days tending to his garden, fruit, pecan trees and the land he loved so much. He was a defining force in the lives of his family. He instilled in each one the importance of honesty, integrity, self-sufficiency and above all hard work. His passing ended five generations of the Finley lineage.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 59 years, Betty Jo Poole; parents, Jim and Janie Spinks; brother, J.D. Finley; daughter, Edna Finley; great-grandson, Brodie Thompson; and granddaughter, Tracye Oxley Hill.

Survivors include three daughters, Josephine Hill and husband, Ralph, Kay Finley all of Eva, La.,  and Doris Hamilton and husband, Robert, of Sugar Land, Texas; two brothers, Samuel Roy of Boggy Bayou and Oscar and wife, Edith; one sister, Ernestine Allbright of Longview, Texas; four sisters-in-law, Orell Tiffee, Thelma Poole, Nita Poole and Maxine Ritchey; grandsons, great-grand daughters and great-great-granddaughters, Ed Steed, Gus and trace Hill, Tyler and Dathan Trant, Conner and Derrick Moreland, Westone Smith, James and Robbie Hamilton and Mason Fifield; granddaughters, great-granddaughters and great-great granddaughters, Jodee and Tanner Trant, JayCee, Miley and Madison Hill, Tracy Ford, Tracey and Shelby Massey, Marcy Moreland, Melissa Smith, Kathryn and Taylor MsElwee, Jessica Hamilton and Lidsey Fifield.

He will also be missed by a treasured cousin, Charles Spinks, of Jena, good friend, Junior Thompson, of New Era, and his most entrusted companions, Bid D and Little D, his mixed terriors.

Pallbearers will be his grandsons and special honorees and his granddaughters.

The family extends a special thank you to Dr. William Coney of Jonesville and Hospice Compassus of Alexandria and multiple caregivers.

Online condolences may be made at www.comerfuneralhome.com.