John Wells

A Funeral Service for John D. Wells will be held on Thursday, September 2, 2021 at 2:30 p.m. at the Bauer-Torrey & Mach Funeral Home in Alma, Nebraska, with Pastor Curtis Pfeil officiating.

Interment will be held on Friday, September 3, 2021 at 2:30 p.m. at the Fairview Cemetery in Atwood, Kansas.

Johnney David Wells, Sr., 82 years of age, of Alma, passed away, on Sunday, August 29, 2021, at the Arbor Care Center in Franklin, Nebraska.  John was born on February 25, 1939, in Asher, Oklahoma, to William and Maudeen (Lancaster) Wells.  John graduated from high school in Sterling, Colorado, with the class of 1958.

On July 12, 1958, John was united in marriage to Joan K. Fundenberger in Sterling.  The couple was blessed with three children:  David, Jodeen, and Jay.  John considered his greatest accomplishment of his life, his family.

John has mastered a variety of skills during his 82 years of life.  He was able to make tents, awnings, and mattresses; to upholstering vehicles and furniture; painting vehicles; building houses, knotty pine furniture, and electrical substations; to oil pipe pulling, drill bit tipping, drag racing, welding, roofing, buying and selling vehicles, "hopping up" motors, and customizing and chopping tops on vehicles.

John opened his first upholstery business in Longmont, Colorado in 1963, named Wells Upholstery.  He and his workers sewed camper cushions and the family made great lifetime friends there.

They moved their family to Goodland, Kansas, buying the Goodland Hotel and started Carriage Upholstery in 1977, all before beginning his airport runway business, Tri-State Striping.  This included runway painting, paint removal, asphalt repair and rejuvenation, hot tar crack repair, cold tar spraying, crack cutting, slurry coating, and traffic control.  Then came the Grand Snowmobile rental and Lake Cove Marina in Grand Lake, Colorado.  In 1992, the family moved to Alma, continuing the airport runway business with his sons, David and Jay.

John was preceded in death by: his parents; his brother, James Thomas Childers; six aunts; and two uncles.

John is survived by his wife of 63 years, Joan Wells of Alma; three children:  David Wells of Alma; Jodeen Acuff and her husband, Mark of Goodland, Kansas; and Jay Wells and his wife, Tammy of Alma; ten grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; one half-sister, Theresa Glenn of Houston, Texas; one niece; along with extended family and friends.

A memorial has been established in John's honor, and kindly suggested to the family.

Expressions of caring and kindness can be sent to the family at www.nelsonbauerfh.com

The Bauer-Torrey & Mach Funeral Home in Alma is in charge of the arrangements.