James Kevin Garmon

In Loving Memory of James Kevin Garmon
January 27, 1965 – September 21, 2025

It is a hard thing to measure a man, harder still when that man is gone and the shape he leaves is made of silence and of memory. So it is with James Kevin Garmon, born in Rome, Georgia on January 27, 1965, to Alton Garmon and Maryann Wells Starley, both now long since taken back into the red clay, the damp earth, the quiet hush of the same land that bore them forth. For sixty years James walked this earth, and on Sunday, September 21, 2025, he stepped beyond it, into that vast silence where fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers who have gone on before, wait joyfully to reunite with him. 

What remains is the line of blood and bone, the kinfolk who hold to his name and will not let it pass unspoken; his former wife, Tracy Garmon; his son, Kevin Garmon (Leah Duke); his daughters, Kayla Caldwell (Chris), and Katie Green (Chris) are witnesses to his laughter, his stubbornness, his love, and his flaws. He also leaves behind his grandchildren, Jakob Garmon (Rhiannon), Taylor Garmon (Mackenzie Poole), Gracie Culberson, Christian Culberson, Forrest Shaw, Harper Green, Carolina Caldwell, Gracelynn Garmon, and Wyatt Garmon, along with seven others not here named but no less treasured, and six great-grandchild who will inherit the stories told of him. His brother, Kelvin Garmon, and his sisters, Shawn Sizemore, Brandi Sarvis, and also several aunts, nieces and nephews walk forward carrying his memory as well. Preceding him in death were Louie Garmon, Myrtle Garmon, John Wells, Zona Wells, Donna Harner Bridges, and James Harner, all threads woven into the long fabric of a family line that stretches back beyond remembering.

To speak of James is to speak of the things that marked his days and gave them shape. The Georgia Bulldogs, whose victories and losses he bore as if they were his own; the iron and chrome of Harley Davidson motorcycles, roaring like freedom across a Southern highway; the drag strips where engines thundered and time itself seemed to pause between the lights turning green and the rush of speed; the flickering screen of Ghost Hunters, where he sought the uncanny with as much faith as curiosity. 

James was a man who understood machines. He delighted in cars, their engines, and especially the old 1977 Chevy K-10 that bore his imprint and carried his pride. His dog Marshall, more than companion, more than pet, was his best friend, his shadow, his confidant.

Yet above all this, beyond the engines and the teams and the pastime of late-night shows, it was family that anchored him. His grandchildren were not merely descendants but his joy, his legacy, his reason for lingering long at the table or in the yard, watching them with eyes softened by love. He gave his strength for them, and his stories will live on in them. He worked many years in the manufacturing industry, labor that left its mark on his hands and his back, and in time he laid that burden down in retirement, having given enough of his life’s sweat to earn its rest.

Services for James will be held on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, at the chapel of Good Shepherd Funeral Home. Friends and family will gather in visitation beginning at 6:00 PM, with the funeral service to follow at 7:30 PM. It will be there, among his people, that his life will be honored, his memory spoken aloud, and his passing acknowledged with both tears and gratitude.

Good Shepherd Funeral Home is honored to have been entrusted with the arrangements.

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