John Joe McMains

Joe was born March 30, 1931, in Dexter, New Mexico, to Paul McMains and Leola (Byers) McMains.

His family moved from New Mexico to Texas and to Oregon, eventually settling in Boise, Idaho. He graduated from Boise High School, and went to Boise Junior College (now Boise State College). After his family moved to Ephrata, Joe met a young lady at church in Moses Lake, named Reva Maude Jackson and found that she was the one for him! They were married in October 24, 1952.

After serving his country in the Army, Joe and Maude settled in the Columbia Basin and eventually buying a farm south of Ephrata. The farm was developed from sage brush land that was just opened up in the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project. This was raw land that he turned into a productive farm. The farm was a great place to raise their 3 children, David, Sean and Becky. After the children were grown, Joe and Maude sold the farm and he started to drive truck. He operated his own trucking business for several years and then went to work driving for LTI (Milky Way). As the years went by, he moved from driving truck to working in the shop and spent the rest of his career servicing the fleet of trucks they had stationed in Moses Lake. He made many good friends there. After he retired, he went into business for himself hauling new travel trailers from the factory to dealerships all over the U.S. and Canada, driving over a million miles in the process.

Joe is survived by his loving wife Maude of 56 years, and his children, David (Kathy(Frogg)), Sean (Linda), and Rebecca, 12 grand children and 15 great grand children. He is also survived by 2 brothers, Dr Paul E (Shirley) McMains and Sam McMains and 2 sisters Lenora D’Arcy and Mary (Terry) Hunt.

A memorial service will be held on August 8, 2009, at 2 p.m. at the Ephrata Church of Christ, 31 Crest Drive, where he and Maude were faithful members.