Jimmy Carroll Couch

Jimmy Carroll Couch, 83, passed away on Tuesday, March 21, in Lamar, Missouri. Visitation will be held from 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 1, at Archer Funeral Home, followed by a graveside service at 2:30 p.m. in Seymour Masonic Cemetery, with Steve Sullwold officiating under the direction of Archer Funeral Home.

Jimmy was born November 27, 1939, in Seymour to Charles “Bill” Couch and Margaret (Dycus) Couch. He graduated from Seymour High School in 1958 and married Evelyn Hejl on June 14, 1959, in First Presbyterian Church of Seymour. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas Tech and was awarded his Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina.

Jimmy joined Missouri Southern State College’s English Department in 1970 and taught there for 36 years, retiring as a professor in 2006. He particularly enjoyed teaching his Children’s Lit course in the summer semesters, as well as a night class that accommodated more non-traditional and older students with more life experience. Jimmy’s lifelong and intense interest in cowboy and agrarian poetry led him to join the Missouri Cowboy Poets Association, where over the years he attended regular meetings and “gatherings” where he shared some of his own poems. Jimmy never lost his love of and connection to Baylor County and once wrote, “We never washed off completely the good red, rocky, loamy soil of Baylor County from our hair and off our feet.”

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Evelyn (Hejl) Couch; three daughters, Deborah Taylor and husband Ted, Rachael Tucker, and Valerie Couch; grandson Cameron Tucker; and sister Beverly Wicker and husband Charles; and several nieces, nephews, and cousins.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Baylor County 4-H Club or to the First Presbyterian Church of Seymour.