Donald McKinnon, 82, Pleasant Hill, Ill., died Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010 at the Eastside Health and Rehabilitation Center in Pittsfield.
Funeral services were at 11 a.m., Tuesday (today) at the Calvary Gospel Church in Summer Hill with Mark Sheppard officiating. Burial with military honors followed at Crescent Heights Cemetery in Pleasant Hill.
Visitation was from 5-7 p.m., Monday at Lummis Funeral Home in Pleasant Hill and one hour prior to the services on Tuesday at Calvary Gospel Church.
She was born Jan. 16, 1927 in Dixon, a son of Harrison and Molly Kelly McKinnon. He married Betty Lee Dwyer on Oct. 16, 1947 in Hardin. She preceded him in death on Aug. 10, 2008.
Survivors include four children, Jimmy Dale McKinnon and wife, Sandy of Clarksville, Lanny Dale McKinnon and wife, Mary Jo, Louisiana, Patricia Sue Bolton and husband, Allan, Louisiana and Terry Lee McKinnon and wife, Cindy, Pleasant Hill; 13 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; two sisters, Eva Sheppard and husband, the Rev. Francis of Summer Hill and Mildred Parker of Deland, Fla.; one brother, Benny McKinnon of Pleasant Hill and  numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Betty Lee McKinnon; two sisters, Pearl Miller and Maxine Jeans and two brothers, Barney McKinnon and Herbert McKinnon.
Donald wa a lifelong Pike County farmer and logger and was one of the first to help organize tractor pulling in the Pleasant Hill area in 1949. He and his family became well-known for tractor pulling throughout the United States and Canada.
His first tractor was an F-20 International and one of his best-known tractors was a John Deere 4000, the “Pike County Stud” with which he won the National Tractor Pulling Association (NPTA) Championship in Louisville, Ky., in the 1980s.
CBS reporter Roger Mudd had followed Donald from the Pleasant Hill bottoms all the way to the national championship and this story was featured on the CBS Evening News. Another one of Donald’s well-known tractors was an Allis Chalmer D-21 known as “the Joker”, with which he won many pulls and he ended his competitive pulling years with a Ford tractor.
Donald was an Army veteran of World War II and a member of the Pleasant Hill American Legion Post 1048 and the Louisiana Elks Lodge. He was an avid duck and pheasant hunter and a member of the Calvery Gospel Church in Summer Hill.
Memorials may be made to Calvery Gospel Church in Summer Hill.