John Wesley Bradshaw Jr.

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, May 2, 2012

    John Wesley (J.W.) Bradshaw, Jr., 95, a longtime resident of Meridian, died Friday, April 27, 2012, at the Robertsdale Healthcare Center, Robertsdale, Ala.

    Born February 15, 1917, in Tiffintown, MS, to John Wesley Bradshaw and Mary Irene Lear Bradshaw, J.W. grew up on the Bradshaw family farm in Yazoo County, near Phoenix. It was to this farm that he brought his bride, Josephine Heard Bradshaw in 1941, remaining there with his growing family until 1949. At that time, he and Josephine moved to northwest Louisiana to manage the branch of the Heard family’s home furnishings business opening there with the new Cotton Valley oil fields. The move led to a full and rich life, but, in his heart, “home” was always the farm and family he left in Mississippi.

In Cotton Valley, he became very active in civic affairs, serving as president of the local Lion’s Club and district officer, Boy Scout troop leader, active officer in Methodist Men, and participant in numerous initiatives to bring amenities such as a city park with playgrounds, playing fields, and tennis courts to the newly flourishing oil-field town.  He was assistant fire chief in the town’s volunteer fire department, a more than ceremonial role in a town with oil refineries.  As merchants, he and Josephine, enjoyed engagement in the lives of townspeople in every walk of life and their store offered an easy mid-town congregation point for visitors to the Post Office, the public library, Riddle’s Grocery, Hooten’s Hardware, Spinx’s Drycleaners, and other destinations in the block.

    Depending upon the timing, visitors might be treated to J.W.’s sardonic imitation of “Uncle Earl” Long, whose gubernatorial campaign truck speakers had just, in his view, assaulted the town. (Earl Long was only one of many Louisiana and Mississippi pols he was to scorn.  As those states turned increasingly “Red,” J.W. remained the contrarian’s true “Blue.”)

     The TV playing in his showroom was still a novelty to most people in town, and he indulged those “just lookin’” who dropped in to see Yankee legend  Mickey Mantle battle the Brooklyn Dodgers or let a child  glimpse Buffalo Bill and Howdy Doody.  All the high-school girls visited the store their senior year to claim their miniature Lane cedar chests.  His own children earned their allowances by dusting the store before or after school.

    J.W. loved public service and public life. Always ready with a fresh joke or an eloquent prayer, he was often at the podium.  In time, though, drilling began to slow near the town.  Even harder on the town merchants were new highways leading shoppers to nearby competition for local dollars.  The family business was sold. To support his family, J.W. entered procurement work with a local pipeline contractor, traveling with the crews anywhere lines were being laid. He enjoyed the adventure for a couple of years, but, in 1963, as their second child headed to college, J.W. and Josephine seized the opportunity to return to their beloved Mississippi.

    They returned first to Jackson, where J.W. worked longest with Fowler Buick, and then, upon his retirement, to the family farm in Phoenix. There, he and Josephine took great pleasure in the restoration of the 160-year old Bradshaw farm house, involvement in the Phoenix Wesley Chapel Methodist Church, and all the risks and rhythms of farm life.  Crops, livestock, fences, hayfields, and gardens required great vigilance every season, and he attacked each task with zeal. The labor was strenuous for a man of any age, most certainly for a man in his 70s, but it was a life he loved. Only when his eyesight failed him almost completely, could he be wrested from it.   In 1993, he and Josephine reluctantly departed the farm for Aldersgate Retirement Community in Meridian, MS.  Soon, however, the warmth and support of the Aldersgate residents and staff, provided a host of new friendships and vital support for the challenges to come.

    J.W. survived surgery and treatment for cancer at age 80 and hip replacement surgery at age 89. Though totally blind for the last 10 years of his life, he remained acutely aware of local and national affairs, listening intently to news on TV and radio. Each morning began with broadcasts of Mississippi Public Radio readers of the Clarion Ledger and the Bible until his progressive hearing loss totally thwarted his efforts to follow current affairs.

    He was long ago preceded in death by his two sisters, Lou Celia Bonney and Hallie Elvira Adcock.  More recently, in October 2011, his wife Josephine died, just two months shy of their 70th anniversary.

    He is survived by his son John W. Bradshaw, III, and wife, Mary Webb Bradshaw, of Montrose, AL, and his daughter, Mary Irene Bradshaw of Washington, DC.  He is survived also by three grand children: John Frazer Bradshaw and his wife Susie Wise of Oakland, CA,  Danner Webb Bradshaw of Joshua Tree, CA, and Benjamin Bradshaw Tolson of Austin, TX, and one great granddaughter, Hattie Anne Bradshaw of Oakland.

    Nieces and nephews include: Cecille Bonney Hintson of Redwood, Evelyn McLaurin of Raleigh, Mary Adcock Hynum, of Jackson, Margaret Adcock Montgomery of McComb, and Edward Adcock of Denton, TX. Nieces and nephews also include Kathleen Heard McNeil of Jackson, Thomas Melvin Heard and Michael Thomas Heard of Meridian, Margaret Heard Reihle of Brandon, Dorothy Heard of Hattiesburg, William Franklin Heard, V, of Dallas, TX, and many grandnieces and nephews.

    The family wishes to thank the Aldersgate staff and administration and the healthcare and hospice aides– especially Gwen and all the angels she orchestrated– for their immeasurably steadfast support and tender care.

    The family will hold a graveside service for J.W. with interment rites for him and Josephine at 11:00 AM on Friday, May 11, at Lake Wood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi.

    Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Mississippi  Senior Services Sunday Fund, a fund of the Methodist Church for elders who have outlived their financial resources (MSS Sunday Fund, Aldersgate Retirement Community, 6600 Poplar springs Drive, Meridian, MS, 39305) or the charity of your choice.