Joe Donald Pickens

Joe Donald Pickens was born in Oklahoma City on the 11th of October 1934 to Roy and Marie Pickens.

Joe was the fourth of 5 children born to Marie.  She had been married first to Willie Chachere.  They divorced and their two daughters, Arlene and Elizabeth, went to live with their father’s parents in Kinder, Louisiana.

After Marie married Roy Pickens, they had three sons, Roy Jr, Joe and Jim.

During the early childhood years, Joe lived in Oklahoma and the family moved to Hot Springs after the birth of his little brother Jim.  Joe spent all of his school years in Hot Springs, graduating in 1954.  Joe joined the Army in October after graduating.  After basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was stationed in Heilbronn, Germany for 18 months.

After coming home from the Army in Germany, Joe got a job for a company in Kansas City, Missouri that did private investigations for merchants, to ensure their employees weren’t stealing from them.  While assigned to a job in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Joe met Carolyn Berry.  Joe said his boss kept calling him, asking when he was going to come back to Kansas City and Joe kept putting him off, "a couple more days..."  They married on October 16, 1957, even though Joe knew he would be fired since the company only hired investigators who were single.  They lived in Hot Springs for a short time, then after their daughter Charlene was born, they moved back to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Carolyn's parents gave them space on the land next door to the Berry Patch house for their trailer home.

Joe got a job as a guard in the state penitentiary for about a year, and then became a Sioux Falls police officer, officially joining the department on March 30, 1961.

In December 1961, their son Scot was born.  Joe and Carolyn divorced in November of 1967.  Joe married Phyllis Larson McFarlane in April 1968.  They divorced a few years later but remained friends until Phyllis’s death in 2003.

Joe was a police officer for 25 years, retiring on December 27, 1985.  After retiring, he kept busy with jobs such as driving a hearse for Miller Funeral Home from rural towns back to Sioux Falls, and for several years he was the driver for a blind man who worked for the state and visited newly blind people to help them learn how to use their computers.

Joe enjoyed coaching Little League for the Greenlees team for several years and has heard from a few of his former players in recent years.  He was an active member of the El Riad Shrine, participating the Oriental Band, and serving as the President.  He also was a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, American Legion and Scottish Rite.

At 87 years of age when he passed, Joe had the misfortune of having outlived many of his friends and colleagues, but many are left behind who knew and loved him.  Since 2003, Joe has lived in Houston, Texas with his daughter Charlene and his son-in-law Jesse, whom Joe loved like another son.  For most of those almost 19 years, Joe was very self-sufficient despite the after-effects of a severe stroke.  For the past two years, he has required an increasing amount of care, especially after becoming bedridden around January 2021.  He really enjoyed how the younger generation of children would stop in his room and visit with “Grandpa Joe”, “Baby Joe” or “Papa Joe” as he was variously called by them.

Joe is survived by his ex-wife Carolyn, his brother Jim, daughter Charlene and her husband Jesse Hall and his son Scot Pickens.  He also deeply cared for his daughter-in-law Rachelle and his step-daughter, Nia Maxwell.  Joe had six grandchildren; granddaughter Chenoa and her husband Marc Campbell, grandson Joshua Hall and his wife Nikki, grandson Matthew Hall and his wife Michaela, grandson Zach Pickens and his partner Hillary, grandson Zane Pickens and granddaughter Addison Fowler.  Joe was blessed with nine great-grandchildren; Alana Klein and husband Patrick, Kira Campbell, Nathaniel and Jaiden Hall, Matthew and Meagan Hall, and Owen, Willow, and Jackson Pickens.  Joe also had his first great-great-grandchild, Oliver Klein.

Services are scheduled for Thursday, May 5, 2022 from 12pm to 2 pm at Beresford Funeral Service (13501 Alief Clodine Rd., Houston, TX 77082), followed by Graveside Service at Carmen Nelson Bostick Historic Cemetery (12317 Holderrieth Rd. Tomball, TX 77375) at 3pm.

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