Joe Fair, 78, of Elizabethton, passed away Saturday, November 16, 2019, at Hillview Health Center.
A native of Carter County, he was a son of the late Harry and Frances Ashmore Fair.
Joe was a 1959 graduate of Elizabethton High School where he was a kicker on the football team and a catcher on the baseball team. He was on the 1958 state runner-up baseball team which was inducted into the Elizabethton High School Sports Hall of Fame. Joe served in the United States Air Force where he played baseball at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.
Joe was a member of the Western Film Club. He had a lifelong passion for movies of all types, but his favorite genre was westerns. He loved to travel to western film conventions across the country to meet the old actors from his childhood movies in person and to collect the old films. For many years Joe would travel to the Mountain Home VA on Saturdays to show the western films in their theater to the veterans. He retired from Bosch as a Production Operator.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his youngest sister, Sharon McKinney; his oldest sister and brother-in-law, Loretta Anderson and Earnest; and a niece, Rachael Anderson Crawford.
Survivors include three nieces, Tammy Markland and husband Kenny, Shannon Harr, and Shawn Young and husband Chris; several great-nieces and great-nephews; and special friends, Lisa Peters and Dan and Brenda Love.
The graveside service for Joe Fair will be conducted at 2 p.m. Thursday, November 21, in the Mountain Home National Cemetery with Military Honors conducted by the Carter County Honor Guard. Active pallbearers will be Kenny Markland, Josh Markland, Zac Markland, Russ Vines, Jon Vines and Chris Young. Honorary pallbearers will be Mitch and Teresa Parlier and Gaye Staton. The family would like to express a special “Thank You” to the staff at Hillview Health Center and the staff of Amedisys Hospice. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in memory of Joe to the EHS Sports Hall of Fame, c/o Athletic Director/Elizabethton High School, 907 Jason Witten Way, Elizabethton, TN 37643. The family will receive friends from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home. Family and friends will assemble at the cemetery at 1:50 p.m. Thursday. Condolences may be sent to the family at our website at www.memorialfcelizabethton.com.
Memorial Funeral Chapel is serving the Fair family.