Obituary of Jimmie Duane Lockhart

After living a very full and active life, Jimmie Duane Lockhart, “slipped the surly bonds of earth” on May 18, 2019 at the age of 86.

Jim was born in Independence, Iowa, on August 24, 1932 to Marion and Opal (Durbin) Lockhart. He was the youngest of three children. After graduating from high school in Independence, where he played varsity football and basketball, Jim attended Dubuque University and earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering at Iowa State University and a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Oklahoma.

Jim had a distinguished Air Force career which included serving as a B-52 pilot in Vietnam and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1979 and became the chief pilot for Peter Kiewit Sons’, Co., where he worked for 13 years, before retiring and moving to Austin, Texas and later to Tucson, Arizona.

Jim was an avid golfer (seven holes-in-one!) and tennis player. Jim will be remembered by his family and friends as a loving husband, an awesome father and grandfather, a masterful pilot, an American patriot, a mentor to many, and “the wise one.”

Jim was preceded in death by his first wife of 32 years, Carol Mae (Emmons) Lockhart, and his brother, Lyle Everett Lockhart.

Jim is survived by his wife of 30 years, Ana Cristina (de Yarza) Lockhart; his two daughters Lisa Mari Lockhart Carroll and Karin Anne Lockhart-Durkee; his grandchildren Caroline Elise Durkee and Benjamin James Durkee; and his sister, Marilyn Mae Keys. He is also survived by his stepchildren Christian G. Otwell and Anita L. (Otwell) Oppenheim, and six additional grandchildren.

High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds ... and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of ... wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.