Sept. 21, 1930- Aug. 14, 2022
United States Army Veteran
Funeral services for Linn Garner, 91, of Glencoe will be Sun., Aug. 14, in the chapel of Tri-County Funeral Home at Highland and will include, at the special request of Mr. Linn, a recognition of the life of his son, the Honorable Judge Tom Garner. Visitation will begin at 1:30 p.m., with services to follow at 2 p.m.
Elijah Linn Garner, just shy of 92 years, of Ash Flat, Ark. was born Sept. 21,1930 and passed away Aug. 7, 2022. He was the son of Thomas Windom and Isa Mae Godwin Garner. He was proud of his hometown community of Ash Flat, where his family first arrived in 1823.
Linn was united in marriage to his long-time sweetheart, Willie Ann Horrell of Hardy on Feb. 25, 1951. The couple shared over 70 loving years together. To this union two children were born, Thomas Linn “Tom” and Julea Glynn Gamer.
He proudly served our county in the United States Army during the Korean War. Linn was always quick to support the veterans of our Great Nation and would quickly remind others “If it were not because of the great people who served in our Nation’s Armed Forces, we would all be speaking Japanese on one side of our country and German on the other!” He was instrumental in placing American flags and flag poles at numerous World War II veterans’ graves all over the region. He was one of the first to proudly support the American Veteran’s Memorial in Ash Flat.
Linn was a 1949 graduate of the Ash Flat High School, a 1953 graduate of Arkansas College (now Lyon College) and later, earned his masters degree from Arkansas State University. He was well-known throughout the state as a great athlete, later being chosen ALL-AIC for basketball and later inducted into the Lyon College Athletics Hall of Fame. At one time during the 1950s, he turned down an offer by the Los Angeles Dodgers to play baseball, due to the fact he wanted to return to Arkansas with his family, sell real-estate and farm.
After graduating from college, he taught school and coached and was always elated to hear his former students and athletes lovingly refer to him as “Coach,” from his days of coaching basketball at Biggers Reyno, Mammoth Spring, Highland (here he was their first and only coach for their first two years) and Hardy school districts.
He worked for many decades selling real-estate in north Arkansas. He was the sales manager in Horseshoe Bend for his brother-in-law, Richard “Dick” Pratt and his brother, Bill Pratt. After many years of successful business with the Pratt brothers, Linn owned and operated the First National Real Estate Company in Horseshoe Bend. He thoroughly loved being a realtor and making great friends with the new land owners. Linn was proud of working on land development side-by-side for over 40 years with two of his closest friends, Robert Clay and Kenneth King. Linn continued selling real-estate and raising cattle, until his retirement at the age of 90.
He served on the Arkansas Cattleman’s Association, Fulton County Water Association Board, Horseshoe Bend Development Corporation and the Arkansas State Realtor Board.
Linn was preceded in death by his wife, son, parents and siblings Johney Eugene Garner, Atha Claudine Heflin, Willie Mae Pratt, Margaret Lou Brennan and his nephew, Steven Heflin.
Survivors include his daughter, Dr. Julea Gamer; son-in-law, Rev. Brien Nix Hall and granddaughter, Lillie Gamer Hall. Linn is also survived by his special family: Jim and Marlene Sawyer, Fred and Janet Lamb, the Robert and Kathleen Clay Family, the Kenneth and Mary King Family, Tom’s three step-children (Mark, and Kyle Knighten and Katy Kalb), the Bill and Alice Nix Family and the Family of Harlis and Lorene Harber.
Special thanks from the family to Dave Jarvis and all the medical staff at the Cave City Nursing Home, to Linn’s great friends, Bill and Maxine Russell, Darrel Taylor, and Kurt Bratcher.
Pallbearers include: Fred Goodwin, Dale Godwin, Mike Nix, Ronnie Brogdon, Jack Kimbrell and Martin Carpenter.
Honorary Pallbearers include Dr. David Kauffman, Clint Bailey, Dr. Brooks Blevins, Tony Stewart, Brett Farris, Keith Feather, Toby Goodwin, Mart Carpenter, Charlie Martin, Jerry Morrow, Kolby King and Dr. Harley Harber.