James N. McKinney

Memorial services for the Rev. James N. McKinney (Nanimnukshkuk), 77, Mayetta, will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Mercer Funeral Home in Holton. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at the funeral home. Burial with military honors will follow in Prairie Peoples Cemetery on the Potawatomi Reservation west of Mayetta.The Rev. McKinney died Monday, Oct. 24, 2005, in Topeka.He was born March 27, 1928, on the Potawatomi Reservation, the son of James Noonen and Gladys Pam-Nuck-Nuck McKinney. He received diplomas in theology and religious education from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.The Rev. McKinney served in the U.S. Air Force from 1950 to 1954 and from 1955 to 1971. Retired from the clergy, he was an elder language cultural research person with the Potawatomi Language Department. He was a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and was an elder of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference of United Methodist Church. He was also an elder of the Eagle Talon Brotherhood and We-Ta-Se Post 410 of the American Legion, where he served as chaplain.He married Olive Agnes Viers. She survives, of the home.Other survivors include a son, Smokey, Lawrence; four daughters, Darlene Young, Edgewater, Md., Karen Kennedy, Santa Fe, Tenn., Leah Douglas, Independence, Mo., and Rebekah McKinney, Grain Valley, Mo.; 12 grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.The family will receive friends from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.