Bennett, James A. 1929-2025 Oak Park, Ill.

OAK PARK, Ill. – James A. “Jim” Bennett died on Feb. 14, 2025, in Oak Park, Illinois. Jim was born Oct. 19, 1929, in St. Joseph, the younger son of Mary Beatrice (Glasgow) Bennett and Thomas Walker Bennett.

Jim was passionate about languages, the arts, and science. He earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry and physics from Northwest Missouri State College and an M.A. in Spanish from the University of Kansas. He taught Spanish and French at the University of Wyoming, Kansas State University, and Missouri Western University. He also worked as a translator for the U.S. Army in Fort Leavenworth. In retirement he taught school in Breckinridge, Missouri, and was active in teaching Spanish and attending painting classes at the Douglas County Senior Center in Lawrence, Kansas.

Jim was a prolific woodcarver and puppeteer and was seldom seen without a sketchbook and pencil in hand. He and his former wife, Romaine Taylor, conducted a puppetry workshop for Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska. Jim enjoyed using pastels for drawing portraits and created paper mache masks and wire sculpture. He created many carved wood panels, some for area businesses and others reflecting his interests in the history of the Wild West. He was featured several times in the St. Joseph News-Press and the Lawrence Journal-World.

Survivors include his daughter, Claire Oxtoby and husband David, of Chicago, Illinois; three grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren, Mary Christina Szafraniec and husband John, of River Forest, Illinois, and their children Claire and Marie, John Oxtoby and wife Roxana, of Chicago, and their children, Leila and Drew, and Laura Oxtoby and husband Cassidy Phillips, of Ventura, California, and their children Ray and Kai; one sister, Tanya Low, of Pembroke Pines, Florida;, and numerous nieces and nephews. His older brother, Thomas Walker Bennett Jr., died in World War II. As published in the St. Joseph News-Press.