Jimmie’s Obituary Jimmie William “Red” McFatter, 92, was called Home by his Lord and Savior on Monday, January 28, 2019. Red was born in Hutton, Louisiana to Otis Jennings McFatter and Ethel Andrews McFatter. He was reared in Sugartown, moved to Lake Charles as a young man, and was a graduate of LaGrange High School.
He served his country in the U. S. Navy during World War II and the Korean Conflict. Due to the vision challenges he faced, he was the second recipient of a service dog through the Patriot Therapy Dog Program in Lake Charles. Red was an electrician through Local 861, retiring in 1981.
He was a longtime member of Sale Street Baptist Church. Everyone knew him as “Red”. He liked that name and most of his friends knew him by no other.
Red lived his life with a love of the outdoors and cultivated that love with the desire to become the best he could be. He would spend hours practicing to obtain the skills to make him successful in his interest. Being a natural athlete gave him the competitive edge in sports like golf, archery, and bowling, but a regimented practice routine made him a winner.
Quail hunting was blood lined through generations of the McFatter clan. Red was an innovator in technology to help bring quail hunting into the twentieth century. He was a natural with a tin whistle to locate birds, but to move along with a changing world, he enlisted recordings in a series of pattern calls by people who were experts of calling by mouth.
He then got those recordings on tape to amplify the whistles over speakers, thus making locating birds more proficient. Fishing bass was another natural for Red. Though he worked five days a week, he would use the last two days to withstand the riggers of creek fishing.
He could make a bass hit his lure like no other. He would make a Kentucky bass so angry at his bait the bass would hit it when it wasn’t hungry. Red was a master deer and turkey hunter later in life.
Again his ability to design equipment and develop technique aided his success. The stands he built are still copied by today’s manufacturers, making generations of deer hunters successful. A lot more could be said of Red, but he was not a man of many words.
He was mostly a simple man who was talented in ways that were never really noted. He was a mentor to some, an unknown innovator to many, and an admired friend to all who knew him. In the last few years of his life, Red enjoyed sitting on the porch, visiting and shooting the breeze with all his great neighbors, faithful friends, golf buddies, and his family, who lovingly referred to him as “Gumpy”.
Those left to cherish his memory are his children, Jimetta Weikal (Marv), Donnie McFatter (Kathy), and Cris Hinton (Darrell), all of Lake Charles; six grandchildren, Mick, Beth, Anna, Rachel, Natalie, and Emily; and six great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents; his loving wife of 65 years, Aletta Forter McFatter; one sister, Geraldine Green; and three granddaughters, Annice Lynea Johnson, Amy Lea McFatter, and baby girl Hinton. A private memorial service will be held at Prien Memorial Park at a later date.
Cremation was entrusted to Johnson Funeral Home. The family would like to express to the staffs of Heart of Hospice and Brookdale Assisted Living their grateful appreciation for the compassionate care given to their beloved father.
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