Palestine High School Alumni Association

12 / 03 / 1934  –  05 / 12 / 1951

Sixteen year old Jim Davis Moore, a popular Palestine High School sophomore and star band student, died at 4:05 p.m. Saturday, May 12, 1951, from head injuries suffered in an automobile accident about 2:20 a.m.

Jim’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Moore, of 1518 North Jackson Street, were at his bedside when he died. Between 20 and 30 high school pupils were in the sanitarium corridor and waiting room when death came to the popular youth.

The mishap occurred early Saturday after the youth had driven Miss Daruce Nolen to her home near Tennessee Colony following the local high school’s biggest social event of the year, the 11th annual Coronation and dance. Jim was a member of the band that played for the Coronation ceremony.

Funeral services will be held Monday afternoon at 4 o’clock at the Bailey Funeral Home with the Revs. H.E. Floyd and Tom Potts officiating. Burial will be in New Addition Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Jimmy Mullenax, Robert Dickey, Bill McCuan, Johnny Condos, Roy Harris, and Joe Bell. Palestine High School band boys have been named as honorary pallbearers.

Survivors include his parents, Jesse Givens and Sybil Crain Moore; one brother, Jesse George Moore, of West Point, N.Y.; one sister, Mrs. Carl (Virginia Sue)Neely of Charlotte, N.C.; and two nephews.

Source: Palestine Herald-Press 05-13-1951

He will not be forgotten – Jim Davis Moore.The son of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse G. Moore, North Jackson Street, he was born in Palestine on December 3, 1934, the youngest member of a family of five.

He began his school years on September 8, 1941. At the age of six, Jim attended Rusk Grammar School and continued from the first through the fifth grades, after which time he was transferred to Palestine Junior School, where he completed the eighth grade.

In September, 1949, he was admitted to Palestine High School, where he spent many happy days as a clarinet player in the Wildcat Band, of which he was a member for almost four years.

Words are inadequate for expressing the regret of the students and the teachers upon the death of our schoolmate, Jim Davis Moore. They feel indeed, that the loss suffered by Jim’s family is also the loss of the students and teachers.

Let us not think of Jim as gone. He has just slipped away for a little while, slipped away to that Splendid Land, which so many angels know.

Source: PHS Arc Light 1951