Jack Manning Olive, 95, went on to a better place the evening of April 23, 2024, to meet with his beautiful wife, Dorothy, whom he had married over 70 years before. We are sure it was a wonderful reunion since they had been apart for over three years, Dot having passed on February 9, 2021. Left to cherish his memory are his children, J. Neal Olive (Dawn) and Karen Phillips (Reggie), his grandchildren, Kate Szkolnik, Rachel Wallace (Carl) and Grace Willis (Paul), his great-grandchildren, Chad Williams, Lilly, Olivia and Eleanor Szkolnik and one great-great-granddaughter, Sage Williams.
Jack and Dot were married in 1949, and in 1950, the Army assigned them to El Paso, Texas. After being honorably discharged from the Army in 1952, Jack and Dot returned home to Mobile, Alabama where he continued his career with the GMO railroad. When the GMO relocated to Chicago, Jack began his plumbing career with his brother-in-law, Bobby Case. A few years later, after suffering a heat stroke, he went to work for the City of Mobile as a plumbing inspector and then advanced to Chief Plumbing Inspector and finally the Chief Inspector for the City of Mobile.
Jack and Dot were long-time members of the Forest Hill United Methodist Church and remember when they went to church in a log cabin before helping to build it into a large church with a large congregation.
Jack and Dot loved to go to the Lagoon at Gulf Shores when Neal and Karen were younger and would spend weeks there fishing in the summertime. A few years later, they built a “River House” on the Pascagoula River in Mississippi and began spending lots of time there fishing for mullet and bream. Both would fish until Dot caught so many that Jack would have to start cleaning them. Jack made the best smoked mullet and Dot made the best fried bream - we surely miss eating those fish!!
After retiring, Jack and Dot loved to travel and spend time with family and friends. He will be truly missed by these same family and friends.
Services for Jack Manning Olive will be on Monday, April 29, 2024, at Radney Funeral Home in Mobile, Alabama, with visitation beginning at 11:00 a.m., and funeral services at 12:00 p.m., with interment to follow at Mobile Memorial Gardens Cemetery.
