Calvin 'Red' Speaks Sr.
Ridgeland
Calvin "Red" Speaks Sr. died Sept. 6, 2004, at home.
Services were Sept. 8, 2004 at Natchez Trace Funeral Home, with burial in Pearl River Cemetery. Pallbearers were Brian Cullum, Jake DeLaughter, Melvin Hamilton, Lewis Speaks, Corey Sullivan and DeWayne Wooten. Honorary pallbearers were Jim Sims, Michael Thomas and James Stepp.
Called "Red" by his friends because of his red hair and "Boy" by his family because he was the only boy in the family and three sisters, Speaks was born in Osyka on Dec. 28, 1940 to Merle and Frank Speaks.
Speaks spent most of his life in Ridgeland, where he attended Madison Ridgeland High School. He graduated from Holmes AHS in 1959 and attended Southwestern Louisiana University in Ruston, La. Speaks lettered in track, football, basketball and baseball and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher. He was an avid fisherman and storyteller.
Speaks worked at Vickers and World Tire in Jackson before opening his own business, Discount Tire World, in Ridgeland in 1983. He was married to Sandra Cullum in 1977.
Survivors include: wife, Sandra; sister, Judy Sullivan and husband, Windol, of Brandon; sons, Calvin W. Speaks Jr. and wife, Teresa, of Gluckstadt, and Rocky L. Speaks of Carthage; daughters, Beth Matthews of Panama City, Fla., Krista Speaks Ladner and husband, Corey, of Canton, and Susalyn Vaughn and husband, Tommy, of Ridgeland; grandchildren, Christopher Logan, Adam, Anna, Wade, Dustin, Brittany, Trenton, Zachary, Payton, Calvin W. Speaks III, Ana and Hunter; and nieces and nephews.
Memorials may be made to Sunnybrook Children's Home in Ridgeland.
Bertha Anderson
Canton
Bertha Draine Brown Anderson of Canton died Aug. 30, 2004, at St. Dominic/Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Services were handled by Family Memorial Funeral Services of Canton. Burial was at Lee's Chapel AME Zion Church Cemetery in Canton. The Rev. Henry L. Brown officiated.
Pallbearers were Eddie Brown, Henry Brown, Robert Earl Johnson, Arthur Matlock, Jerry Matlock and Frank White. Honorary pallbearers were Cleophus Brown, Willie Brown, Leon Fleming, Steve Johnson, Kinnard Luckett, Tommy Matlock, Donald Washington and Herman Washington Jr.
Known as "Big Mama," Anderson was born in 1906 to the late Gabriel and Nancy Spivey Draine. She was the first of two children. A brother, Leon Sylvester Draine, preceded her in death.
She was married to the late T.T. "Nat" Brown, and later met and married the Rev. Luther Anderson, who also preceded her in death.
Anderson became a Christian at an early age at Lottville M.B. Church and later attended Lee's Chapel AME Zion Church, where she had served as a secretary and deaconness until her health failed.
Survivors include: daughter, Lillie Mae Miggins, sons, Lee Brown and Robert Lee Brown, and wife, Sadie, all of Canton; 18 grandchildren, 54 great-grandchildren, 87 great-great-grandchildren and 13 great-great-great-grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.
Louis Sylvester Ross
Canton
Louis Sylvester Ross, 38, of Canton, died Sept. 1, 2004, at home.
Services were held Sept. 7 at Pleasant Green M.B. Church in Canton with the Rev. Bruce Landing officiating. Burial was in the church cemetery.
Ross, the fifth of 10 children, was born Feb. 8, 1967, to Nellie Mae Ross and the late Sylvester Johnson.
He attended Madison County schools and joined Pleasant Green M.B. Church.
Survivors include: mother, Nellie Mae Ross; sisters, Mary Lynn Brown of Canton, Eddie Lou Pinkston of Sharon, Margaret Ann Dixon and husband, Terry, of Durant, Debra Denise Ross of Sharon, Beatrice LaChun Ross of Canton, China Renia Wilder and husband, Willie Earl, of Farmhaven, La Tressa Shakina Ross of Sharon, and Dorothy Jean Johnson of Memphis, Tenn.; brothers, Paul Edward Ross of Lansing, Mich., Robert Earl Ross and wife, Doris, of Sharon, Sylvester Johnson of Memphis, Tenn., Carl Edward Johnson of Memphis, Tenn., and Ricky Burse of California; stepchildren Waltycia Simpson and Miran Simpson, both of Canton; stepgrandchildren, Xavier and Miran Simpson Jr.; friend Lenzy "Womp" Brown Jr.; mother-in-law, Mattie Prophet; and aunts, uncles and cousins.
Kenneth J. Swain
Jackson
Kenneth J. Swain, 72, of Jackson, died Sept. 4, 2004, at Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland.
Services were Sept. 10 at Natchez Trace Funeral Home with burial in Chattanooga National Cemetery.
Swain was a native of Toccopola and a U.S. Army veteran, serving during the Korean war. He earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He was a member of Pear Orchard Baptist Church. He was preceded in death by parents Oresta and Nellie Johnson Swain and sister Nona Tallant.
Survivors include: wife, Marian; daughter, Patricia Riley and husband, Thomas, of Atlanta; son, Kenneth W. Swain of Jackson; sister, Nell Sanders of Oxford; brother, Johnny Swain of Oxford; grandchildren, Sawyer O'Neill Riley and Peyton Thomas Riley.
Andrew Yoste Defore
Jackson
Andrew Yoste Defore, 20, son of Dr. and Mrs. W. Wilson Defore, died Sept. 4, 2004, in Charleston, S.C.
Services were Sept. 8 at St. Richard Catholic Church with burial in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg.
Defore, a member of St. Richard Catholic Church, was an Eagle Scout in Troop 30 and was elected to the Order of the Arrow. He was involved in student government, debate team and Spanish Club at Jackson Academy, where he graduated with honors. He was a psychology major at The College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C.
Defore enjoyed camping with Wilderness Ventures and traveled to Europe, where he saw Pope John Paul II in Italy. Other places he loved included Switzerland, France and the beaches of Charleston, Destin, Fla., and Orange Beach, Ala. Hobbies included playing the keyboard, listening to music and traveling. He loved following University of Mississippi football, discussing philosophy with his father, going out to eat with his mother and following his brother Matthew's achievements on the JA football team.
"Andrew had so many friends who loved him, it was as though he was a celebrity," said friend Charlie Houck.
Survivors include: parents, Wilson and Carol-Scott Defore; brother, Matthew; and grandparents, Helen Yoste and Elsie and Wilson Defore Sr.
Memorials may be made to St. Richard Boy Scout Troop 30 or Jackson Academy.
Donald M. Dockery III
Jackson
Donald M. Dockery III, 85, died Sept. 7, 2004, at Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland.
Services were Sept. 9 at Wright & Ferguson Funeral Home in Ridgeland with burial in Lakewood Memorial Park. Pallbearers were Cris Dockery, Robbie Grider, Aaron Lasker, Cliff Long, Richard Magee and Jeff Myers. Honorary pallbearers were U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, Public Service Commissioner Nielsen Cochran, Dr. Harvey Lewis, Andy Minor, Joe Whiteside and Ed Williams.
Dockery was a Hernando native, born July 16, 1919 to Donald McKay Dockery Jr. and Willie Cook Dockery.
The Dockery family moved to Byram shortly after his birth and opened what was known as the Dockery Store.
He graduated from Central High School in Jackson in 1936 and earned a bachelor of science degree at Mississippi State University in 1940. He married Stella Dendy Calhoun Sept. 8, 1940, and took over operation of the Dockery Store.
He became an aviation cadet and entered the Army Air Corps in 1943. He was a multi-engine pilot and instructor and served in Europe. After World War II, he stayed in the Air Force Reserve and retired as a lieutenant colonel.
After the war, he re-entered the grocery business and also engaged in the pulp wood business and cattle ranching.
In 1953, he went into what was then the Mississippi Bottled Water Co. with his father-in-law, E.L. Calhoun. He was active in the water business until his retirement in 2003.
Survivors include: wife, Stella; son, Billy Calhoun Dockery and wife, Barbara, of Madison; daughters, Dona Dockery Grider and husband, Robert, of Jackson, and Kay Dockery Long and husband, C.D., of Belzoni; six grandchildren, Dendy Kay Magee of Jackson, Robert C. Grider IV of Nashville, Tenn., Christopher McKay Dockery of Madison, Anna Katherine Long of Cleveland, Mary McKay Lasker of Jackson, Clifford D. Long III of Jackson; and three great-grandchildren, Davis Marshall Magee and Elizabeth Ann Magee, both of Jackson, and McKay Katherine Dockery of Madison.
Memorials may be made to Hospice Ministries, 450 Towne Center Blvd., Ridgeland MS 39157.
