Lost of another puller January 21, 2010 05:20AM
Funeral services for Donald McKinnon, 82, of Pleasant Hill, Ill. were held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19 at the Calvary Gospel Church in Summer Hill with Mark Sheppard officiating. Burial, with military honors, followed at Crescent Heights Cemetery in Pleasant Hill. Ill. Mr. McKinnon died Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010 at the Eastside Health and Rehabilitation Center in Pittsfield, Ill.
He was born Jan. 16, 1927 in Dixon, a son of Harrison and Molly Kelly McKinnon. He married Betty Lee Dwyer on Oct. 16, 1947 in Hardin, Ill. and she died Aug. 10, 2008.
Mr. McKinnon was a life long Pike County farmer and logger and was one of the first to help organize tractor pulling in the Pleasant Hill area in 1949. He and his family became well known for tractor pulling throughout the United States and Canada. His first tractor was an F-20 International and one of his bes- known tractors was a John Deere 4000, the “Pike County Stud” with which he won the National Tractor Pulling Association (NPTA) Championship in Louisville, Ky. in the 1980s. CBS reporter Roger Mudd had followed Mr. McKinnon from the Pleasant Hill bottoms all the way to the national championship and this story was featured on the CBS Evening News. Another one of his well known tractors was an Allis-Chalmer D-21 known as “The Joker,” with which he won many pulls and he ended his competitive pulling years with a Ford tractor.
He was an Army veteran of World War II and a member of the Pleasant Hill American Legion Post 1048 and the Louisiana Elks Lodge. He was an avid duck and pheasant hunter and a member of the Calvary Gospel Church in Summer Hill, Ill.
Survivors include four children, Jimmy Dale McKinnon and wife, Sandy, of Clarksville, Lanny Dale McKinnon and wife, Mary Jo, of Louisiana, Patricia Sue Bolton and husband, Allen of Louisiana and Terry Lee McKinnon and wife, Cindy, of Pleasant Hill, Ill.; 13 grandchildren; 15 great grandchildren; two sisters, Eva Sheppard and husband, the Rev. Francis, of Summer Hill, Ill. and Mildred Parker of Deland, Fla.; one brother, Benny McKinnon of Pleasant Hill, Ill.; and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Betty Lee McKinnon; two sisters, Pearl Miller and Maxine Jeans; and two brothers, Barney McKinnon and Herbert McKinnon.
Memorials may be made to Calvary Gospel Church in Summer Hill, Ill.
Lummis Funeral Home in Pleasant Hill, Ill. handled the arrangements.
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Re: Lost of another puller January 21, 2010 05:13PM
Thanks for the obituary.It was a very nice writeup on Donald.The McKinnon family have to be considered true pioneers in the sport of tractor pulling. Only Bennie is now left of all the brothers.RIP Donald.
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