James Jay Abbas was born May 5th 1937, to Epko and Mabel (Davis) Abbas in Britton, SD. He attended the Britton Public Schools K-12 and graduated in 1955. He was lucky enough to have his grandmother teach in second grade. Jimmie (as he was known in his hometown) was the “it guy” in high school, participating in football, basketball, track, band, chorus, and glee club. But wait, there’s more. He was also class president, student body president, and homecoming king. Outside of school, he was active in his church’s youth group and sang in the choir with his beloved mother. He graduated in 1955 and moved on to Huron College. He graduated in 1959 with a BS in math and science. We aren’t sure how much math he learned during his wild college days, but he did have the BS down to a science.

He married Shirley Blume in June 1959, and while the marriage did not last, a son became a lasting legacy of their relationship. During this time, he worked at Sherwin Williams as a credit manager.

In March 1962, Jim married Elizabeth Ashby. They had four children of their own, and together fostered countless newborns and disabled children, including the ones we counted as our own. Bruce, Kevin, and Matthew. It was a loud, messy, and chaotic home, and we are better, more empathic people for it. They moved to Sioux Falls late in 62, where he worked odd jobs until joining Graybar Electric in April of 1963, as an inside salesman. It took the powers that be five years to figure out they’d hear less dad jokes if they sent him out on the road and “promoted” him to outside salesman in 1968. After awhile they forgot the bad jokes and made him branch manager, where he held his employees hostage with his humor, for the last ten years of his career. He retired after 31 very satisfying years. He loved to joke that he was retired longer than he worked (32 years).

He was a volunteer fireman in Huron during college. In the summers, he lifeguarded at the Britton pool. Jim was a longtime member and onetime president of the Bass Club of SD. He loved all the manly man sports, including bass fishing, league bowling, pool, watching sports, going to Augustana basketball, and he was a regular golfer. Jim had a competitive nature in everything he did, from work to play. The only exception was golf, while he idioted his way into a hole in one (and only one), he never mastered it enough to beat anyone. But he didn’t let that stop him from screaming obscenities at a little white ball, while wearing ugly pants.

His biggest accomplishment if you asked him (and we didn’t) was his kids and grandkids. He attended our games, plays, concerts, and tournaments. He taught us to play pool, shoot hoops, and fish. He made us all great at casting in small hidey holes for bass. Mostly because we were afraid of his crabbing if he had to unstick a $20 lure. He took us camping and instilled leave no trace before we knew it was a thing.

He wasn’t a perfect man, but he was perfect for us. He navigatedourarguments,took us to movies, encouraged our endeavors, and applauded our accomplishments louder than anyone. While normally a quiet guy, he was bold and loud in his pride for his family. He rescued us with money, love, and an ear to lean on. He taught us love, gentleness can be loud too, the value in hard work, and the benefit of a good credit score. He supported us in the things we loved and donated generously to the causes that caught our hearts. He quietly taught his daughters what a good man looks like and his sons how to treat women well, and how to keep showing up even when it’s hard. This is clear when you realize his children’s relationships have endured a collective 160 years. He did all those things for the grands as well. He babysat, taught them math when their lessons exceeded their parents’ skills. He sat in cold ball parks, attended plays and concerts, and even his granddog’s flyball tournaments. He loved Jeopardy and could answer nearly every question before the buzzer went off. He set a daily alarm so he wouldn’t miss it. His grands loved to watch him get every question right. He was genuinely saddened when Alex Tribek died, and a little miffed that he didn’t get to go first. He was a voracious reader and could consume 23 novels a day. A week at the cottage included a suitcase of books and toys for the grands and later the grand dogs.

He was unbelievably excited and grateful to have all of his children in one room for the first time in his life, right before this Christmas. He wasn’t blessed with siblings, but he had a deep love for his many Hagen cousins, and our lives were filled with stories and shenanigans that included that family.

The real heroes in Jim’s later years were his daughter Kelly and Jeff, his son-inlaw. Jeff fixed up his house for selling, and built a bedroom for themselves, in the basement, so Jim could have a main level room. Together, they packed up 88 years of memories and moved him into their home. Kelly was there for every fall, meal, mess, sadness, and frustrating moments, all while working fulltime and babysitting her grandchild. She took an unpaid leave of absence to care for Jim full-time for his final two months of hospice. We could not fathom a better caretaker. She was there for the good, the bad, and the ugly. We are eternally grateful to both of them.

Sad and broken, but grateful to have been part of this great man’s life are his children: sons, JayAbbas (Linda), New River, Az; Scott Abbas (Sue), Hartford. SD; daughters; Jaime Abbas-Restorff (Neil), Everywhere USA, Laine Larsen (Shannon), Tea SD; Kelly Abbas (Jeff), Sioux Falls; and more grands and great grands than we can count. Hey, he was the math whiz, not us.

He was preceded in death by his parents and foster sons, Kevin and Bruce, his born sleeping grandson, Gus, and granddaughter Crystal.

A visitation, with family present to greet friends, will be held at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, February 18th, 2026, at Miller Funeral Home Southside (7400 S Minnesota Ave). A funeral service will follow at 5:00 PM at the same location.

We will plan a small service in Britton for the summer, where he will be interred between his parents.