"Sonny Boy" John Martell Dillard was born Feb. 16, 1936, in East Oakland, Calif. He lived the first twenty-some years of his life in the Bay Area working as a gas station attendant and a truck driver. He moved his family to Blodget, Summit and Falls City, Ore., where he worked in the logging Industry and at Neptune Micro-Floc building water control panels for the Alaska Pipeline. In 1976, he moved his family to Carson City, Nev., where he worked at Bentley of Nevada and the Victory Club Sports Book. He lived in the Carson, Reno-Sparks area for 20 years working as a bartender, at Reno-Sparks Cab Company, Micro-Manipulator and Velo Bind Assembling Office Machines.
At retirement he moved to Cascade, Idaho, in 1996. There he worked as a Senior Forest Service Program as a maintenance mechanic on vehicles and worked at Cascade Golf Course maintaining equipment and the golf course greens. The winters proved too cold for him and so moved to Clackamas, Ore., for a few months before coming back to the Nevada that he so loved on Dec. 26, 1999. He picked Winnemucca as his final destination and worked at The Humboldt Sun delivering newspapers and as a shuttle driver for the Winners Hotel and Casino. He passed away on Nov. 15, 2012, from a long battle with various ailments.
John was preceded in death by his parents, Opal Lorene Lawler Dillard, Wm Berkeley Dillard, daughter Teddie Ann Dillard, paternal grandparents John Anderson Dillard, Edna Nicholson Dillard, maternal grandparents Annie Dee Parmer Lawler, and Charles Martell Lawler.
John is survived by his loving wife of 31 years, Wenda (Wendy) Lee Walker Dillard, half-sister Catherine Lanell Dillard Cathey, Sister Patricia Jo An Dillard Sanders (David), brothers Thomas David Dillard (Renee), William Berkeley Dillard (Belinda), Robert James Dillard (Johanna), sister-in-Law Rena Rebecca Walker Langille (Pat Trotter), son John Martell Dillard Jr., daughter Ginger Lorene Dillard Babcock, son William Jefferson Dillard (Renee), daughter Cindy Lynn Dillard Baum (Andy), daughter Hester Marie Dillard, son Robert James Dillard (SaRy), stepson David Wesley Arneson and stepdaughter Brenda Rebecca Arneson Tarraf (Salman), twenty four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and puppies: Dollar, Shadow and Patches.
John was loved by all who knew him and will be missed by all. A memorial will be held in Winnemucca at a later date to be announced in January 2013.
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