Jim and Bobbie Schooler were this year’s Fairfax Fair Parade Grand Marshals.
The Fairfax Optimist Club selected Jim and Bobbie Schooler to be the Grand Marshals of the 2024 Fairfax Fair Parade. Both Jim and Bobbie are lifelong residents of Atchison County.
Bobbie began her career in health care in 1979 as a kitchen aide at Pleasant View Nursing Home in Rock Port. She also served as an EMT in the Atchison-Holt Ambulance District for 13 years.
In 1988, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserves. Bobbie is a veteran of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, where she served as a hospital Corpsman at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. She is currently a registered nurse, and teaches adult classes for certified nurse’s aides and certified medical technicians at Northwest Technical School in Maryville, Missouri. Bobbie is also an R.N. Test Observer for D&S Diversified Technologies LLP Headmaster LLC.
Jim graduated from high school in Fairfax in 1960. He attended college at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln for 2 ½ years. After college, he enrolled in Mortuary School in Dallas, Texas. He received his embalmer’s/funeral director license in 1964. He has worked in funeral service for the past 60 years with the exception of two years spent in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.
Appropriately, Jim and Bobbie met each other in the emergency room at Community Hospital in Fairfax 1996. They were married in 1997 and they live one mile east of Fairfax.
They are both members of John Richards Post #284 American Legion and are also both members of the Fairfax Optimist Club. Jim is a member of Fairfax Lodge #483 AF & AM and the Fairfax Kiwanis Club. Bobbie is a member of the Atchison County Memorial Building Foundation Board. Jim and Bobbie attend the Methodist Church in Fairfax. They are the parents of four children, now grown up: Bill Hecker of Parkville, Missouri, Beverly King of Tarkio, Missouri, Chris Schooler of Bryan, Texas, and Heath Schooler, who passed away in 2017. They also have six grandchildren: Tailor Galgono, Chance Hecker, Josie King, Wesley Schooler, Allison Schooler and Victoria Burton.
