John “Jack” Leo Barrett

John “Jack” Leo Barrett was born Saturday, December 20, 1930 to John Sr and Lucy (Memmlow) Barrett in Piermont, New York. When Jack’s mother died at an early age, Jack went to live with his grandmother. Jack learned the art of Italian cooking at the apron strings of his Italian grandmother. True Italian cooking became a lifelong passion as well as accumulating cookbooks and sharing meals with friends and neighbors.
At age 16 Jack joined the service. By the time they discovered he wasn’t old enough, he was nearly 18 so he was allowed to stay. Jack was a six-year navy man who served in the Korean War. He was very patriotic and proud of his service and his country.
Jack spent his career as a foreman in charge of crew workers. He was a 50+ year member, in good standing, of Local 472 Laborers’ International Union of North America, Newark, NJ whose jurisdiction was the entire state of New Jersey. This was the 2nd most powerful labor union in the USA.
Jack and his young eight-year-old son Jonathan relocated from Florida to Tyndall, South Dakota in 2003. Among his many interests, one of Jack’s primary pass times in the last 15 years was watching his son Jonathan grow up involved in basketball, baseball, track, fishing and making friends. He took a lot of pride in all of Jon’s accomplishments especially graduating high school and college.
Jack had a wicked sense of humor which allowed him to easily make friends. Jack was a devoted Christian and ensured that even after a move to South Dakota his son quickly found a church family and was brought up in the church. His devotion to his Catholic upbringing was important to him and late in life he could be found reciting the Rosary often throughout the day.
Jack loved to drive around and see the countryside. He traveled to area communities and provided many stories to business owners and patrons along the way. There are very few people in the area that don’t have a story involving Jack. Those who knew Jack, knew he woke up early (much to the dismay of a teenager) and he made sure people knew they were missing out on the best hours of the day. Most days he worked a half day and exercised before many people were out of bed.
Jack was a faithful member of St. Leo Catholic Church and Simek-Ptak VFW Post 6895.
Jack Barrett, age 89, of Tyndall, passed away Wednesday, July 15, 2020 at St. Michael’s Hospital Avera in Tyndall.
Jack is survived by his children Jonathan Barrett of South Dakota, Jack Barrett and William Barrett both of Florida, Kevin Barrett of New York and Maggie Jo Barrett of Pennsylvania; grandson Marc Barrett of New York; sister Deloris E. Barrett of Wisconsin; special friends Patty and Joseph Boska of Florida, Todd and Candy Crownover of South Dakota.
Jack was preceded in death by his parents and grandparents.