Preston James Obituary – Death: Appearance has been booked from 2:00 – 4:00 P.M. Sunday, February 7, 2021 in the Leonard-Marker Funeral Home. Administrations will be held at 2:00 P.M. Monday, February 8 in the Chapel at Leonard-Marker administered by Pastor Jeff Sloan. Interment will continue in the Bixby Cemetery with full military distinctions given by the United States Army. The family deferentially asks those going to administrations to wear a cover.

Tommie Preston James was brought into the world on March 21, 1936 in Bixby, OK to A. Harmon James and Thelma Lee (Kilburn) James. He passed from this life on February 2, 2021 in Tulsa, OK at 84 years old years, 10 months and 12 days.

Tom was an alum of Bixby High School and accepted his Master’s certification from Emory Riddle Aeronautical College in Daytona Beach, FL. He gladly served his country for more than 20 years in the United States Army and resigned in 1984 as a Lieutenant Colonel. Tom was an extremely refined pilot in the Army and was one of a tiny gathering of pilots from Oklahoma that has at any point been granted the Distinguished Flying Cross. During the Vietnam War, Tom flew a Huey helicopter into danger to protect an Army General whose helicopter had gone down in an essentially distant uneven region.

Tom courageously and quietly worked his Huey into the space and achieved the salvage. The whole story of his tribute might be perused at this connection, http://www.25thaviation.org/id276.htm He revered as an individual from the Bixby Free Will Baptist Church and was likewise dynamic in the Experimental Aircraft Association. Tom had many interests and diversions which included planes, voyaging, cooking, fishing, hunting, mushroom hunting and anything mechanical. He was a magnificent dad to his children and has passed on a solid inheritance for them to endeavor toward. He was all around cherished by numerous and will be profoundly missed by all.