John Livingston Maxwell Jr., 90, died on Friday (May 27, 2011) in Newton.
He was born on March 28, 1921, in Tulsa, Okla., the son of Bertha May Maxwell and John L. Maxwell Sr. He attended Tulsa schools and moved to Newton in 1936, where he graduated from Newton High School in 1938. He attended Bethel College and Ohio State University, where he graduated in 1942 with a Bachelor of Science in horticulture.
During that time, he worked for the Agriculture Experiment station for the state of Ohio. He joined the Navy and attended the USNR Midshipman School at Columbia University in New York City. He served three years in the Navy as an officer and served 18 months in the amphibious force that landed in Normandy, France, at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.
John married Martha Margaret Brodhagen in 1943 in Norfolk, Va. She preceded him in death on May 31, 2008. After the war, they moved to Franklin Park, Ill., where he worked for Swift and Company. In 1949, they moved to Newton for John to manage the greenhouse for Maxwell Flowers.
John was an ex-president of the Greater Wichita Florists Association, as well as ex-president of the Kansas State Florists Association. He also served 10 years as chairman of the horticulture research advisory board of Kansas State University. He was a member of Zion Lutheran Church, Newton Lions Club, American Legion and a member of the Cherokee Indian Nation of Oklahoma.
He is survived by three children, Sharon Behnke and her husband, Keith, of Manhattan, Tom Maxwell and his wife, Janet, of Muskogee, Okla., and Richard Maxwell and his wife, Alicia, of Newton. He had nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He also was very involved with his many nieces and nephews and their families in the Newton area.
His parents and his wife preceded him in death.
Visitation will be from 5 to 9 p.m. today, with family receiving friends from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Petersen's Funeral Home in Newton. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Zion Lutheran Church in Newton. Burial will be at Greenwood Cemetery following the church service.
Memorials can be made to Zion Lutheran Church of Newton.
