James D. White (Jim) was born in western Cooke County near Hood on March 8, 1936, to Anna Louise Shaw White and Henry Milton White. Living in the country with few kids nearby, Jim and his grandpa, J.D. White, went fishing nearly every day. His sister, Jan, was born shortly before Jim started school at Ross Point, and the family moved to Denton for the war effort at the end of his first semester of first grade, where he soon met his lifelong friend Jimmy Owens. When Jim and Jimmy started junior high, Lewis Behringer became the third of the "three amigos." They graduated from Denton High School in 1954 as proud Broncos.

Jim and Diana Pearson married on November 19, 1960, and became parents of Melissa in 1961 and Melinda in 1963.

Jim attended North Texas State University and graduated with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Industrial Arts. He began teaching in the Denton I.S.D. in 1969 and retired in 1998 from Denton High School, where he taught the vocational Auto Mechanics program. He loved his boys.

When Pierce's on the downtown Denton square was the place to see and be seen, Jim enjoyed swapping tall tales and sporting goods with Mr. Pierce and the guys, later continued at Glen's. Jim loved fast cars, motorcycles and outdoor activities and the friends he shared them with. He was adept and talented at so many things - he could do and fix anything and lots of folks did not know that he was also a talented artist.

Jim died on May 9, 2020, and is survived by his wife of fifty-nine years, Diana P. White; daughters Melissa C. Degenhart and Melinda K. Schultz; beloved sister and nephew, Janis B. Weiss and Brian Pritchett, cousins and a host of friends and former students.

A graveside service will be held on Tuesday May 12, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. at Roselawn Memorial Park in Denton, Texas. Social distancing will be practiced at the service.