INVER GROVE HEIGHTS — A funeral service for John H. Jeffries, age 87, of Inver Grove Heights, Minn., formerly of Granada, Minn., will be 11 a.m. July 22, 2019, at Lakeview Funeral Home Chapel in Fairmont, with visitation one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Interment will be in Center Creek Cemetery, Granada, Minn., with military honors by Lee C. Prentice American Legion Post 36 and Martin County Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1222.

John passed away Monday afternoon, July 8, 2019, at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System.

Lakeview Funeral Home in Fairmont is assisting the family with arrangements.

John Henry Jeffries was born Dec. 16, 1931, at the Gamble farm in rural Martin County, Minn., to James “Jim” Jr. and Constance “Gusty” (Nowak) Jeffries. He attended school in Winnebago and Huntley before later graduating from Granada High School in 1950.

On Aug. 4, 1959, John was united in marriage to Bernadette Koehler in Guckeen, Minn. The couple resided in a small one-bedroom house on an acreage in rural Granada. This union was blessed with four children: Jim, Nancy, Joseph and Jerry. John and Bernadette shared nearly 60 years together.

John had a career that was always related to chickens and other farm animals, but he had an affinity for poultry. While still in high school, he was superintendent of the poultry show at the Martin County Fair. He showed his “fancy chickens” at numerous county and state fairs, and judged or ran numerous poultry shows. In the spring, shortly after graduation, he began his own custom goose and duck hatching business for the people of Martin and Faribault counties. In the fall, he would purchase the market geese for a poultry processor in South Dakota.

John’s career was put on hold when he was drafted into the U.S. Army on Nov. 29, 1954, where he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. and Fort Bliss, Texas. While in the Army, he participated as a judge for a poultry show near where he was stationed in El Paso, Texas.

After receiving his honorable discharge on Sept. 9, 1956, he returned to Martin County and started working with his father in the livestock business, and then later on his own. John continued buying and selling cattle, eventually becoming one of the largest buyers at the South St. Paul Stockyards, where he bought baby calves and young cattle on consignment for farmers and feedlots in northern Iowa.

After his marriage to Bernadette, they began to collect “fancy” chickens that they, along with children Jim and Nancy, entered into competitions at regional and state fairs across Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and California. He thoroughly enjoyed the many people that he met during his travels.

In 1990, John and Bernadette, along with children Joseph and Jerry, started the Jeffries Chicken Farm in Inver Grove Heights, where he created an ethnic market where people could purchase their own live animals, perform ceremonies and butcher the animals themselves like they did in their native countries. It’s a custom slaughterhouse for chickens, ducks, cattle, goats, sheep, etc., used by immigrants from around the world. He continued to run the Jeffries Chicken Farm for 29 years up until the time of his death.

Survivors include his wife, Bernadette Jeffries of Woodbury, Minn.; children, Jim Jeffries (Monica) of Eagan, Minn., Nancy Lein-Jeffries (Clark) of Gordon, Wis., Joseph Jeffries (Chelsie) of Woodbury, Minn., and Jerry Jeffries of North Mankato, Minn.; 10 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; sisters, Dorothy Jeffries (Larry Bilek) of Osceola, Wis., Mary Beaber (Paul) of Durango and Silverton, Colo.; brother-in-law, Bob Murphy of Guckeen, Minn.; nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.

Along with his parents, James and Constance Jeffries, John was preceded in death by his sister, Margaret Murphy.

www.lakeviewfuneralhome.net

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