Obituaries

Nicholas Rodgers "Jack" Stevens Jr.

Nicholas Rodgers "Jack" Stevens Jr. died December 15, 2011 at Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland, Miss. Funeral Services will be 2 p.m., Saturday, December 17, 2011 at Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home on Highland Colony Parkway in Ridgeland, Miss., preceded by visitation at 12 noon. Burial will follow in Parkway Memorial Cemetery. Jack, as he was known by family and friends, was born June 12, 1922 in Macon, Miss., the son of N. Rogers Stevens and Avis Cockrell Stevens. He attended Macon, Noxubee County and Starkville Public Schools before entering MS State College in 1939. Already a licensed pilot by the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the Navy in 1942, receiving basic Navy flight training at NAS, New Orleans and earning his Navy Wings at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. At NAS, Corpus Christi, Texas Jack was a PBY pilot instructor and he received training in B-25s at Edenton and Cherry Point, N.C. before going overseas. He was stationed on Guam in the Pacific Theatre of Operations. He was discharged from the US Marine Corps Reserve in 1958 as Captain. Returning to MSU after the war Jack received a BS degree in Business Administration. He worked in the insurance field before returning to Mississippi in 1968. He organized and trained the original staff implementing the Ms Motor Vehicle Title Law for the State. At the time of his retirement in 1989 he was executive director of the MS Veterans Home Purchase Board. An avid sports fan, Jack was a volunteer at the MS Sports Hall of Fame. He was a member of ATO Fraternity, the Lions Club, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, The Military Order of World Wars and the Blinded Veterans Association. He especially enjoyed fellowship with members of the Walter Scott Coffee Club and Kroger Coffee Club. A member of Briarwood Presbyterian Church USA for many years, he was an ordained elder and deacon and charter member of Grace Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, Ark. Survivors are his wife of 67 years, Mary Evelyn Redus Stevens; son, N.R. Stevens III and wife Donna of Benton, Ark.; daughter, Elizabeth Stevens Simpson of Jackson, Miss.; one sister, Cleo Stevens Carmichael of Knoxville, Tenn.; six grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren. A son, Alan L. Stevens, died in 2009. The family requests that memorials be made to Briarwood Presbyterian Church, 610 Briarwood Drive, Jackson, Miss. 39211 or to a charity of your choice.

Published December 16, 2011

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