TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: J. T. SIKES (1929 – 1983)

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: J. T. SIKES (1929 – 1983)

In 1990 President George H W Bush signed the Americans with Disability Act into law protecting the rights of handicapped workers for the first time. This was a landmark civil rights law for Americans who were experiencing discrimination in the workplace due to disabilities. JT Sikes navigated the world of work and raised a family in Calhoun County as an amputee many years before these protections were in place.

James Tilden Sikes, known as JT, was born on April 22, 1929 in Coleman, Texas to Thomas Tilden and Lora Meryle Sikes. He was the second of their four children and the only boy. He grew up helping his dad in the shop where he learned skills he would use the rest of his life. JT graduated from Mozelle High School where he was on the basketball team. Introduced by mutual friends at the county fair, he met and courted Marion Inez Gray, known as Inez. They married on March 26, 1950 and had a daughter, Patty, on January 23, 1951.

In a family history letter, his older sister Zelma wrote about JT, “He was born to die young.” She believed he was lucky to have survived childhood. She describes the harrowing times he almost drowned as an 18 month old in the stock tank only to be saved by the incessant barking of the family dog. Another time when he was fishing, wearing a new straw hat, the wind blew the hat into the water and JT jumped in after it. His father came to his rescue and fished him out. There was a time he fell into the cement cellar and she wasn’t sure how he survived.  Or the time he found a live 22 shell that he exploded between two rocks. Or the time he fell off a tractor and was run over by the tire. Zelma wrote, “but think of all the things he had come through and could still laugh.” All of these childhood near misses led him to a toughness that likely made him capable to endure what was to come.

 JT worked in oilfields and construction as he raised his young family. He was working in Arizona in the mid 1950s when he had a devastating work accident. While welding on an elevated platform above a rock crusher, his lead got jerked out of his hand and caught in his overalls. The lead was pulled into the machine which pulled in part of his right foot. His quick thinking and speedy reaction led him to pull himself free before the machine caused more damage. Due to limitations in medical practices at that time the decision was made to amputate his right leg below the knee. This injury was devastating to him and his family as it led to a long recovery and limited future job opportunities.

 In an effort to find employment, JT and Inez visited his sister Zelma and her family who were living in Port Lavaca. JT could not find work at either of the two plants in town due to the amputation. They were unwilling to take the liability of a disabled employee. Eventually JT was hired by W. H. Bauer to work for Bauer Dredging.

During his time with Bauer Dredging the loss of a leg did not slow him down. He would go into the bottom of the ships and help clean them out or make repairs. He would operate cranes to help dredge out waterways that had been silted in. He completed many other jobs the same as an able-bodied employee. In fact, he was so good at what he did, he was sent all over the world to work on boats for the company.

He would do all of these things while wearing a “wooden leg.” Prosthetics at the time were primitive aides very different from the carbon fiber apparatuses used by amputees today. His daughter Patty remembers her father coming home from work and removing his prosthetic leg and stocking to find open bleeding sores due to the chafing of his stump in the wooden leg. To give himself a break, he welded a “peg leg” he could use at home that was much less painful for getting around. 

In 1965, JT was hired by Calhoun County ISD as their Director of Maintenance. He held that position until his death. While employed by the district he ran a team responsible for maintenance but was also quick to jump into projects when other staff were hesitant to get involved. His son-in-law Cecil Shafer remembers a time when the lights at Sandcrab Stadium needed some welding to repair them. Vendors were contacted and no one was willing to do the work. Instead they fashioned a bosun chair so JT could reach the damaged portion suspended in the air welding the needed repairs. He was also known in the maintenance department for his generosity during holidays. He would purchase food and gifts for his employees so their families would have memorable holidays. 

When not working, JT built and ran a car wash on West Austin Street next to what is now Young’s Plumbing. His daughter remembers collecting the quarters and counting them out every Sunday night after church when she was a child. That money contributed to the purchase of his ranch in Kingsbury, Texas where JT raised cattle, built cattle trailers, plowed fields, hunted, fished and other activities. This ranch was intended as his retirement home, and he started building a house on the property.  

Throughout his life he never lost the humor his sister mentioned. He loved to scare little kids by pulling up his pants leg and sticking his cane through the hole in his prosthetic. He never lost his generosity and willingness to help others. He would be the first to pull over to help someone on the side of the road having car trouble or volunteer his services. Throughout his life, he refused to get a handicap sticker for his vehicle to use handicap parking. He felt that there were others in greater need for those parking spaces than himself. He lived with the loss of a limb everyday, but never let it limit him.

On May 7, 1983, JT Sikes lost his battle with cancer at age 54. He left behind a daughter who served in Calhoun County ISD for 25 years. She and her husband still live on his beloved ranch in Kingsbury as it has become their retirement home. “The Ranch” as it has always been known in the family, continues to be a gathering place for grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren to run, explore and fish the stock tanks. His legacy lives on in the stories they still hear about him, the land that he loved and the “Sikes” chin cleft that shows up in descendants from time to time.

Written by Jennifer Shaffer Wyatt

Letter by Zelma Downey

Interviews with Cecil and Patty Shafer

The Port Lavaca Wave