Columbia's Santa Claus succumbs at home after short illness.
John J. Atkins, 93-year-old civil War Veteran, better known as Columbia's Santa Claus, died yesterday afternoon at 4:15 o'clock after a short illness at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W.E. Boswell, 1195 Locust Street. Funeral services will be held at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon at Miller's Creek Church, and burial will be in the church cemetery. The Rev. M.F.Berry will be in charge. Mr. Atkins' body will be a the Willett Funeral Home until 1 o'Clock Sunday afternoon. For the last five years Mr. Atkins has made his home in Columbia with his three daughters who live here, and has acted as Santa Claus for the J.C.Penney Store. During the five Christmas seasons he has received many letters from Columbia children. Some of the letters he saved and received much enjoyment from re-reading the notes from the children who were sure that he was the real Santa Claus. Not one of Mr. Atkins' children had ever known their father without the long, white beard, which aided him in being a jolly Santa Claus. Mr. Atkins was born in Franklin County, Virginia, Jan. 19, 1840. He served in the Civil War under Gen. J.E.B.Stuart, and was one of the men who helped carry "Stonewall" Jackson from the road where he was shot down in the dusk by his own men after the battle of Chancellorsville. At the close of the war, he came to Missouri with other Virginians who were seeking a place to make a new start in life. He was married to Miss Alice Wood at Carrington, Mo. Dec. 8, 1873. They bought a farm southeast of Columbia, near Millersburg, where they reared a family of seventeen children, thirteen of whom are living. After the death of Mrs. Atkins in 1907, Mr. Atkins made his home with his children. He was one of ten children. His father, Joseph Atkins, died when he was 99 years old, and his mother, Elizabeth Gillaspie Atkins, when she was 97 years old. The thirteen children who survive their father are: Mrs. C.B. Reid, Mrs. Robert Mansfield, Mrs. Boswell of Columbia; Elvin Atkins, Ottie Atkins, Ardray Atkins, and Samuel Atkins, of Millersburg, Mrs. Frank Lyle, Mrs. Luther Todd and Walter Atkins, of Deer Park; Mrs. W.O. Miller and Evim Atkins of Seminole, Ok; and Mrs. C.A. Kerfoot of Tuscon, Az. All of the children were with their father, except Mrs. Kerfoot, who was unable to come He is also survived by twenty-seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.