Jim Parker Bowdoin of the Ino Community passed away Wednesday, April 29, 2020 at his home.

As the self-proclaimed mayor of North Ino, Big Jim - as he was affectionately known by those who loved him most - lived his entire life in his own utopia, his family farm in Coffee County, Alabama. He was born August 8, 1941, at his rural home, to the late Claude and Mary Alice Parker Bowdoin. It is here that he took his last breath 78 years later.

He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Nyoka Spears Bowdoin. His legacy lives with his family: his son, Jim Parker Bowdoin Jr. and wife, Tamra of Ino, Alabama; and daughter, Frances Bowdoin Phillips and husband, Chris of Cartersville, Georgia; three grandchildren, Addie Bowdoin and Will and Charlie Phillips; his brother and constant companion, Bart Bowdoin, and two sisters, Claudene and Sonny Nichols and Janice and Tommy Whitehurst, as well as many nieces and nephews.

A private graveside service will be held at Peaceful Acres Memorial Gardens in Opp, Alabama, with Brother Garry Winstead officiating.

He was a life-long accomplished farmer who tended his ground with peanuts, cotton, corn, pecan trees and raised cattle and hogs. An avid outdoor enthusiast, Big Jim was happiest in the fields, pastures and woods surrounding his home where he could recount the stories and history of every acre, tree, cow trail and creek and told them to anyone who would listen. He spent his lifetime hunting deer, turkey and dove and fishing the Pea River, and he shared these passions with family and friends. He was a teller of the tallest tales and was filled with quick-witted humor. Before glaucoma and macular degeneration robbed him of his eyesight, he was an avid reader with a love of American and world history. He read "Lonesome Dove" no less than two dozen times because according to him, "it was about the only thing worth reading anymore."

He is the epitome of the words from the late Paul Harvey, "And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, 'I need a caretaker. So God made a farmer." Big Jim Bowdoin was one-of-kind, deeply loved and will be greatly missed by those who adored him most.