Joe Hylton

Joe Hylton was born January 4, 1932, in Norwood, Missouri, to Bert and Elva (Raney) Hylton and departed this life to enjoy a fuller life March 10, 2020. Joe was a resident of Mountain Grove, Missouri, for all of his adult life. He was married to Thelma Rowland at age 19. They soon made Mountain Grove their home. Two boys were born to this union: Lloyd and Lonnie.

Joe and Thelma were a team, buying a hardware store and developing their business, which was named Hylton Hardware, located on the square. Using what he learned from his background growing up on a dairy farm, he started with cans of milk and grew a large successful business. He then began selling dairy equipment out of the hardware store. Farmers learned they could trust him and he was soon asked to take over a failing farmer’s market coop. Joe could see the future of the milk business; therefore, becoming a mega producer. He soon marketed 40 trailer truck loads a day. He became an advisor to the milk industry, serving on boards and sitting in congressional hearings on milk subsidies.

During much of that career he served as Mayor of Mountain Grove for 14 years, from 1977 to 1991. He and Thelma were a team in their church as well and led Lay Renewal weekends in churches across America and in Canada. Thelma graduated this life in 2002.

He and Mary Marlow, mother of three children, were joined in marriage June 12, 2003. Their lives together across these past 17 years was again a team effort of leadership in their church, reaching all kinds of people who needed the kind of encouragement and wisdom that had marked Joe’s life. Joe and Mary had recently purchased land for a much needed bigger and newer building for expanding the ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church. This was typical of Joe’s ability to see the future and be a part of making a vision a reality. One of Joe’s final requests, honored by Mary and the family, was that no flowers be given, but for people to contribute to the building fund of the Emmanuel Baptist Church.

Joe was preceded in death by his parents, Bert and Evla Hylton, and by his first wife, Thelma Hylton.

He is survived by his wife of their home, Mary Hylton, two sons, Loyd Hylton and his wife, Loretta, of Hahira, Georgia, and Lonnie Hylton and his wife, Barbara, of Springfield, Missouri, three step-children, Missey Rogers and her husband, Edwin, Melinda Coonts, and Brad Coonts and his wife, Traci, all of Mountain Grove, Missouri, two brothers, Jim Hylton and his wife, Jane, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Jack Hylton and his wife, Margie, of Mountain Grove, Missouri, four grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and many other relatives, friends, and church family who will miss him greatly.

All who knew Joe, knew that he was a man of carefully selected words. What he said was what he thought. What he thought was what he believed. What he believed was what God says. He was a man of great wisdom who practiced, “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.” James 1:19