John Hunt McMurtry

March 23, 1931 – April 6, 2017  

John Hunt McMurtry, 86, a lifelong resident of Nicholasville, passed away quietly April 6, 2017, at home after a long battle with lung cancer. John Hunt was born March 23, 1931, to the late John Fulton and Alice Reynolds McMurtry. He was a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture and actively farmed most of his life. He entered the United States Army working at Fort Knox in Company D and later organized the Army Reserve Unit in Nicholasville, the Second Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 100th Division Tank Company 397, and spent a year at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, where he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He applied as a rural mail carrier in 1956, and eventually became Postmaster of Nicholasville in 1971, retiring in 1988 after 17 years of service. He is survived by his wife of 62 years Ruth Fitzgerald McMurtry; sons Jay McMurtry, wife Jackie, and James Carr McMurtry, daughter Cynthia Parker, husband Ray; four grandchildren Jason McMurtry, Jana Stiles, husband Greg, PJ and CJ Parker; and two great-grandchildren Lilly and Olivia Stiles. He was preceded in death by two brothers, Fulton and Joseph Carr McMurtry and a sister Anne Louise Sharp.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held at 11 a.m. on Monday, April 10, at St. Luke Catholic Church. He was laid to rest in Maple Grove Cemetery. His family received friends from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 9, at Hager & Cundiff Funeral Home. Contributions may be made in his memory to UK Markey Cancer Foundation, 800 Rose St., Roach Bldg. cc160, Lexington, Ky, 40536 or the St Luke Catholic Church, 304 S. Main Street in Nicholasville. Hager & Cundiff Funeral Home is honored to serve the McMurtry family.