James M. Deem

James Marlin Deem passed away on Sunday, April 28, at the West Cal-Cam Hospital in Sulphur after a brief illness.  He was born in Lake Charles, La. on April 24, 1968. James is remembered as a happy child with an interest in the guitar and board games.  For much of his childhood, he and his mother lived in the home of his grandparents, with whom he shared a close relationship.  In their home there were regular family gatherings with his aunts, uncles, and cousins. He particularly enjoyed his summer visits in Dallas with his three Dallas cousins, who remember those times fondly.  After high school, he worked as a restaurant kitchen helper.  In his early 20’s he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and thereafter was tenderly cared for by his mother and his doctors who sought to control his symptoms with medications. He struggled bravely with both the illness and the medications’ side efforts, but continued his love for the guitar, composing his own music, and playing his beloved Dungeons and Dragons game at which he was a master.

James traveled widely in the U.S. and into Mexico with his mother and lived for a year in Utah before moving to New Mexico, where his mother taught science in high schools first in Cuba and then in Roswell. He returned with his mother to Lake Charles when she retired in 2008. He is remembered by his extended family as kind, gentle and humorous.

James was preceded in death by his mother Leitha Fisher, and his grandparents Jennings and Evelyn Fisher.

He is survived by his aunts, Mary Lyons (husband Rick Lyons), Bonnie Palombo (husband Tony Palombo), Evelyn Fisher and Joyce Fisher, his uncle Lloyd Fisher and eight cousins David, Michael, and Scott Lipscomb, Marcus Hines, Kristen Reed, Kimberly Guillot, Michelle Raetzsch, and Ashley Fisher.

Cremation has been entrusted to Johnson Funeral home. His ashes will be scattered with those of his mother at a beautiful site previously designated by his mother.

Words of comfort to the family may be expressed at www.johnsonfuneralhome.net.