James M. (Jim) Power, 89, died June 18, 2014 at Methodist Hospice House from esophageal cancer. He is survived by his loving wife of 37 years, the former Dixie Busby Martin, and his daughters, Shearon Bailey of Brandon, Florida and Martha Little (William) of Dallas, Texas. He is also survived by step-children, Lee Rantzow (James), Jerry B. Martin, Jr. (Lou), nine grandchildren: John Bailey (Beth), Kate Carr, Abigail White (Matthew), Max Little, Elizabeth, Jerry, and Louis Martin, William and James Rantzow, Jr., and seven great- grandchildren. Mr. Power was born in Red Banks, Mississippi on May 18, 1925. His parents Reeves and Octie Kizer Power, his sister, Mrs. Paul B. Johnson, Jr. (Dorothy) and brother, Shelby Reeves Power Jr. predeceased him. After his freshman year at Ole Miss, Jim was drafted and enrolled in the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of Puget Sound. When the program was disbanded, he and his classmates were sent to the infantry, joining the Eleventh Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge. After being wounded near Bastogne, he rejoined his outfit where, as the only original man, he led two squads that were among the first American troops in Austria. In recent years, he often shared his war experiences with various groups. After marrying Memphian Charlotte Hughes, who died of cancer in 1975, he graduated from Ole Miss at age twenty-two and began his career with E.H. Crump & Co. where he was Chief Financial Officer when the company became a public corporation. He ended his career at Crump as President. Retiring in 1990 from the successor company, Sedgwick-James (now Marsh), he became the pro-bono Director of the Memphis Botanic Garden Foundation where he spearheaded the development that enabled the foundation to hire an Executive Director. His hobbies were gardening, history research, and collecting antique stocks and bonds of Memphis and the Mid-South area. Mr. Power, an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, served on the boards of the former First American Bank of Memphis, the Memphis Arts Council, the Memphis Botanic Garden, and the Financial Executives Institute of Memphis. In his retirement, he authored three books; It Came to Pass. The Iron Man, and A Respectable Minority. His family will always remember him as faithful, loving, kind and generous. He never met a stranger, and friends will remember him as thoughtful, accepting, loyal, and encouraging. He was always a gentleman. Through times of both trauma and pleasure, he often remarked how blessed his life had been, and his faith in Christ sustained him throughout his life. A private burial service will be Monday, June 23rd at Memorial Park Cemetery. A ten o'clock visitation and an eleven o'clock memorial service will follow at Independent Presbyterian Church where he was a longtime member. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, any memorials be sent to Daffodil Hill at the Memphis Botanic Garden, Independent Presbyterian Church, or Trezevant Foundation. Canale Funeral Directors. (Published in The Commercial Appeal on June 21, 2014)