HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSE B. KING!

So how about a few pictures to celebrate his birthday? Here's the earliest picture I can find of Jess. He's one year old in this picture. It's not the best picture, but it's the only picture (so I guess it IS the best picture of him that young, ha!).

And then here he is, long, long ago, with his mother:
According to the date on the picture it was taken back in 1941 . So probably Jess was about 5 1/2 years old at the time. Wasn't he a cute little guy?

Here's all the King siblings around 1944. That's JB standing in the front, in the middle.

This picture is marked 1944, so Jess ought to have been about 9 years old.

And here he is with his younger brother, Kenneth:

Don't let the sweet pose fool you. I suspect he was a little rough on Kenneth at times! You know, that brotherly love stuff!

Jess thinks he's probably about 11 years old in this picture, and wearing his older brother, Thelbert's army hat.

Eleven years old, and look at that big handlebar moustache! Man, he grew a moustache at a YOUNG age, didn't he?

Now, how about this school picture? What a grin he's got!
He claims he was really shy during his school years.

They had horses to do a lot of the farm work while Jess was growing up. Here he is with Kenneth and one of their buddies:

He's the one holding the horse on the left.

Now, does this look like a shy dude in this picture? I think he's sure playing it cool here.
That's him leaning against the tree, in case you didn't figure it out.

Here's a picture of his entire family from 1948.

That's our Jesse in the front again, clear to the left.

Fast forward 35 years, and here's the family again:

Jess got to be one of the taller ones of the bunch, and is in the back, second from the right. (Or third from the left if you'd rather go that direction.)

Jess loves his grandchildren, and here he is with Debra and Dave's kids: Lee, Ryan and Emily.. .

By the time this picture was taken, Kelley was added to the group.

It was some time later, in 2005, and there came another grandchild!


Here we are with Ellie, way back when they still lived in Texas:

I have to admit, it's one of my favorite pictures.

And here's the proud grandpa with all the Sanford clan at Lee's graduation:

And then at Emily's. . .
I'd put one from Ryan's graduation in here, but I don't have any!

Of course, when you get to the grandpa stage, you're also likely to have some wear and tear on the body, and Jess had to have both knees replaced. Here he is last December doing some physical therapy.

This picture was taken back in July of this year, when we went to Canada to visit Richard, Chrystie and Ellie.

And then here's Jess with The Phantom Son during one of his visit's.


And last, a picture of recent vintage, of our intrepid explorer, checking out the new culverts the creek by our property is running through.

Of course, this is just a smattering of pictures, but you know I can't put a picture for every year on here or I'd use up all my bandwidth or something! It'd take a year to download, ha, ha!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!!!