Funeral services for John Lockin, 79, of Aurelia, will be Friday, July 16, 2010, at 10:30 A.M., at the First United Methodist Church in Aurelia, with Pastor Missy Brown officiating. Burial will be in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery, rural Aurelia. Visitation will be Thursday from 2:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M., with the family present from 5:00 to 8:00, at the church. The Redig Funeral Home in Aurelia is in charge of arrangements.
John Cooper Lockin was born March 18, 1931 in Aurelia, Iowa, the son of Verna B. (Howell) Lockin and Harry H. Lockin. He graduated from Aurelia High School in 1949 having played all four sports offered.
John entered Wayne State College in the fall of 1949 and attended three years before being drafted into the Army in August of 1952, where he served until May of 1954 at Ft. Bliss, Texas. He re-entered Wayne State in the summer of 1954, graduating in the spring of 1955 with a BA in Education. He was a four-year letterman in track and golf.
He taught business and coached Junior High athletics at Corwith, Iowa, from the fall of 1955 until the spring of 1958.
John returned to Aurelia in the spring of 1958 and entered the family insurance business with his mother. On August 2, 1959, John married Doris Nydene at the Evangelical Free Church north of Alta. They made their home and raised their family in Aurelia.
In 1962 John was elected Secretary Manager of Maple Valley Mutual Insurance Association and served in this capacity until 1994. While never fully retiring, John sold the insurance business, which had been started by his grandfather in 1883, to son Brian in 1994.
Along with others from the community, John’s passion for golf inspired the building of the Aurelia Golf Club in 1962. For many years thereafter John took care of the greens. John also served as Secretary to a group of community supporters who planned and built Sunset Knoll. He was a member of the Aurelia Fire Department from 1966 to 1976. John was a member of the Aurelia United Methodist Church.
John’s hobbies centered on playing and watching golf and watching and coaching his children and grandchildren in golf and many other sports. He was a big fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes. In 2007 John was elected into the Iowa High School Golf Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame, a culmination of many years of coaching girl’s golf at Aurelia High School. John’s teams made several trips to the State Tourney, which included taking his daughter, LeAnn, on four occasions.
John died at his home on Monday, July 12, 2010.
Preceding John in death were his beloved wife of 47 years on January 13, 2007, his parents, one son, Gary J. Lockin, grandson Joseph Lockin, and half brother Joseph M. Lockin and wife Jean and their son Danny.
Survivors include three sons, Douglas and his wife Rhonda Lockin and their children: Charles, Meredith, Hannah, and Gabriel of Clive, IA, Alan and his wife Lorrie Lockin and children: Benjamin, Elizabeth, and Nicholas of Des Moines, Brian and his wife Keisha Lockin and children: Erica, Erin, and Shea of Aurelia, and daughter LeAnn and her husband Dave Patton and children: Lexie and Annika of Aurelia, and other relatives and friends.