James Garner, Jr.

"Buddy" Garner
James H. Garner

James H. "Buddy" Garner, Jr. of Lovington, New Mexico passed away Friday, March 11, 2016 at Texas Specialty Hospital in Lubbock, Texas. Funeral services will be Monday March 14, 2016 at 2:00 P.M. MST at Chapel of Hope Funeral Home in Hobbs, New Mexico with burial to follow in Memory Gardens Cemetery.

He is survived by his wife, Belinda Crenshaw Garner, four sons, James H. Garner the III, and wife Jill of Dallas, Texas, William Chase Garner and wife Patti of Las Vegas, Nevada, Devin Garner and wife Kathryn of Midland, Texas, Dustin Garner and wife April of Lovington, New Mexico, sisters, Eugenia Fazzino of Rome, Italy and Robbie Casey of San Antonio, Texas and one brother Robert Garner of Hobbs, New Mexico.

He was preceded in death by his brother Gerald Wayne Garner and his parents, Robbie Eddins Garner and James Harold Garner.
Mr. Garner won worldwide fame in 1960 winning the very first National Hot Rod Association World Points Championship. He is recognized in the Lea County Museum in Lovington and in the NHRA Hall of Fame in Dallas, Texas.

Mr. Garner was born in Coldwater, Mississippi and moved to Hobbs in 1956 with his family. He learned the sign business and later opened Sign Glo Sign Company where he and his brothers made many of the big plastic face and neon sign that are still hanging today. He later joined the oil patch and was partners with Link Marks of Lovington in Garner Mark Oil Properties which was later sold to others.

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