John Mask

MASK, John Edward, passed away early Friday morning, October 19, 2007, at the Woodcrest at Blakeford in Green Hills. He was 83.
Mr. Mask was born September 5, 1924, in Darling, Mississippi, the son of the late John Moody Mask and Martha Jane Young Mask. He attended Darling High School where he lettered in football, boxing, and baseball. Upon graduation in 1942, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, attaining the rank of tech sergeant while serving in the South Pacific until November 1945. In May 1946 he married the former Imogene Ivy, with whom he had two sons. After sixty years of marriage, Mrs. Mask passed away in September 2006.
Mr. Mask earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from the University of Mississippi in 1948. A year later he went to work for the Internal Revenue Service in the Criminal Investigation Division. For seventeen years he was a field investigator in New Orleans, Memphis, and Nashville, before moving into supervisory positions in Roanoke, Virginia, and again in Nashville. He specialized in organized crime and racketeering cases. He ended his IRS career in Atlanta as division chief of the Atlanta District, retiring in 1976. He then accepted the position of founding director of the Tennessee Department of Revenue's Special Investigations Division. In 1990 he retired from this "second career." In retirement, he served as a volunteer ombudsman with the Mid-Cumberland Human Resources Agency working with long-term care facilities.
He was a devoted husband and father who took seriously his role as provider for his family. He enjoyed various sports and was a volunteer coach for both sons' Pop Warner Football teams. In their youth, their father always made time for a game of catch, and he often participated with them in sandlot baseball games or pick-up basketball. He took great pride in being able to send his sons to college. In recent years he has actively followed the education and other interests of his grandchildren. He took delight in teaching his grandchildren to fish or to play a game. He was noted for his sense of humor and his easy-going manner. He was a member of Forest Hills Baptist Church.
He is survived by two sons and daughters-in-law: Kevin and Pam Mask, of Nashville, and Jeff and Ivey Mask of Dover, DE; by four grandchildren: Kyle and Casey Mask of Nashville and Nate and Hannah Mask of Dover; by two sisters: Mrs. James A. Gunelle Jackson of Darling, MS, and Mrs. J. L. Lazelle Puckett of Lambert, MS; and a host of nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at Harpeth Hills Funeral Home. Burial to follow at Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens. Visitation will be Monday 6-8 p.m. October 22nd.
HARPETH HILLS FUNERAL HOME, 9090 HWY 100, 615 646-9292. www.harpethhills.com