{"id":37782,"date":"2026-07-17T08:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T12:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=37782"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T12:28:17","slug":"james-welch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/17\/james-welch\/","title":{"rendered":"James Welch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James E. Welch, 77, of Decatur, passed away Wednesday, July 15, 2026, at Adams Memorial Hospital. James was born on November 22, 1948, in Bluffton, OH, to the late Rev. Robert R. and Helen E. (Wittwer) Welch. On June 25, 1971, James married Mary Lynn Davison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"504\" height=\"651\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a58e26daa174.png?resize=504%2C651&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37783\" style=\"width:237px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a58e26daa174.png?w=504&amp;ssl=1 504w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a58e26daa174.png?resize=232%2C300&amp;ssl=1 232w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 504px) 100vw, 504px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James was a member of the Boundless Church of the Nazarene. He was self-employed as an Amish driver and served his country in the US Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary Lynn Welch of Decatur; son, Jason (Sheryl) Welch of Berne; daughter, Aminda (Scott) Brewer of Decatur; son, Lucas Welch of Decatur; considered part of the family, Roger (Brittany) Hibbard of Berne and James\u2019 best friend, Joe V. Schwartz; 15 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was preceded in death by his parents and 3 brothers, Reg Welch, Richard Welch and Donald Welch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A memorial visitation will be held on Sunday, July 19, 2026, from Noon-2:00 p.m. at Haggard-Hirschy &amp; Zelt Funeral Home, followed by a 2:00 p.m. Celebration of Life officiated by Pastor Abby Schnepp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Lieu of flowers memorials may be given to Boundless Church of the Nazarene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James E. Welch, 77, of Decatur, passed away Wednesday, July 15, 2026, at Adams Memorial Hospital. James was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-37782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-obit"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37784,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37782\/revisions\/37784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}