Charles F. Stallings

Charles F. Stallings passed away Friday, September 4, 2015, at the Sheridan County Health Complex in Hoxie, Kansas at the age of 77. He was born January 8, 1938 to the late James R. and Ellaphair (Wall) Stallings in Pine Level, North Carolina. He attended Pine Level Elementary School and graduated from Pine Level High School with the Class of 1957. Upon graduating he joined the United States Air Force, serving on active duty until 1961. On November 19, 1961, Charles was united in marriage to Carol Sue Selbe at the Hoxie Methodist Church. They made their first home in Oxford, NC, where they were blessed with a daughter, Polly Ann. In 1966, the family moved to Hoxie where they began farming and continued to make their home. Charles and Carol Sue celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary this past November. To say that Charles loved farming would be an understatement. Together, he and Carol Sue hired many high school students and taught them proper stewardship of the land. He also worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service (Natural Resources Conservation Service.) This was a family affair as his father-in-law Harold Selbe and daughter Polly also worked for the SCS. In addition, he served on the Farm Service Agency County Boards and the Hoxie COOP Board. As a young boy in North Carolina, Charles liked to play basketball, where he is still remembered as a high school basketball star. He enjoyed net and deep sea fishing, as well as hunting, and he loved tinkering. He also loved flying model airplanes, and eventually went on to earn his pilot’s license. He was always known to be a very kind, polite, and forgiving man; Charles was a true southern gentleman with a sense of humor and an adventurous spirit. Left to cherish Charles’s memory are his wife, Carol Sue Stallings of Hoxie; brothers, John and Rose Stallings of Pine Level, NC and Bob and Miriam Stallings of Marietta, GA; sisters, Beth and Bobby Johnson of Princeton, NC and Lynda and Richard Gulley of Raleigh, NC; sister-in-law, Kathleen Sheltra of Manhattan, KS; and nephews, Doug Stein, Chris Stein, Paul Stallings, David Stallings, Neil Stallings, Scott Stallings, Robert Johnson, Austin Gulley, Stoney Gulley, and Jeffery Gulley. Charles was preceded in death by his parents James R. and Ellaphair (Wall) Stallings, beloved daughter Polly Ann Stallings, and brother Douglas R. Stallings. Charles’s family was always the most important thing in his life. He loved entertaining his family and friends, and showed us by example that life is not what we buy but what we build, not what we get but what we share, not our success but our significance; Charles showed us that a life that matters is a life that loves. Reception: Hoxie United Methodist Church