John E. Perdue, 87, Atchison, Kansas, died Friday, January 22, 2016 at Maple Heights Nursing Center, Hiawatha, Kansas.

Mass of Christian burial will be Monday, January 25, 2016 at 10:30 AM at St. Benedict’s Church with Abbot Barnabas Senecal, OSB as celebrant.  Visitation will be from 10:00 AM until time of the service at the church. The body will be cremated following the service with inurnment to be in the All Saints Cemetery in Everest, Kansas.  Memorial contributions are suggested to St. Benedict’s Abbey and may be left in care of the Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home.  Online condolences may be left at www.arensbergpruett.com. 

John was born January 22, 1929 in Atchison, Kansas the son of John E. Perdue, Sr., and Mildred Lednicky Perdue.  In the early 1940’s he moved with his family to Los Angeles, California and attended elementary schools and graduated from Loyola High School in 1947. Both a scholar and athlete, John recalled his senior year there and playing on the Loyola football team during a regional championship game in the famous Los Angeles Coliseum. 

During and after attending high school, John worked for the US Postal Service as a mail carrier in the Beverly Hills area.  

John served with the United States Army from February 1951 until his honorable discharge in January of 1953. While with the Army he was trained as a tank mechanic. He served for a brief period in Japan, then was shipped to Korea during that conflict. After his Honorable Discharge from the army, he later graduated from the Northrup Aviation’s aircraft airframe and engine program and then the Bell Helicopter maintenance school.  After graduation from these two programs, John worked in Louisiana for a helicopter service living part-time on oil rigs and land, servicing these aircrafts. He later worked with the same helicopter company in Utah and Wyoming during oil exploration activities.  

After returning to Kansas in the 1970’s he was employed with Trans World Airlines as a mechanic for over nineteen years retiring in 1985.  John was also engaged in farming all of his adult life in the Everest, Kansas area. After full retirement, he quietly lived the rest of his life in Atchison, interacting with family and friends.  

He was life-long Catholic and a member of St. Benedict Parish in Atchison.

Survivors include several Bunck, Lednicky and Perdue cousins in the Atchison and Everest communities.

He was preceded in death by his parents.