Willis Glenn Jackson

Willis Glenn Jackson died peacefully on Sunday, September 19, 2021 at the home of his daughter and in the presence of family. He was born on Valentine's Day in 1932 in East St. Louis, Illinois, and grew up in Belleville, Illinois.

He was a Renaissance man in every sense of the term, beginning with his thirst for education. He attended college at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1953. After college, he attended the Lexington Theological Seminary where he received a Master of Divinity, and became an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He served as Associate Minister at the Douglass Boulevard Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and later as a campus minister at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. While at KSU, he earned a Master's degree in American History, and served as a co-director with his wife, Florence Moore Jackson, of an International House for students. In 1967, he moved his family to Talladega, AL where he was an Associate Professor in the History Department at Talladega College, a proud and esteemed HBCU. He and his wife relocated to Birmingham in 1983, where he earned an MA in Gifted Education from UAB. He taught History, Economics, and AP classes at Ramsay High School and a Creative Writing summer program for high school students at Samford University until his retirement in 2000.

He was a musician and life-long supporter of the arts. He particularly loved opera, choral music, and all forms of classical music. As season-ticket holders of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, he and his wife could be found attending most Friday night performances at the Alys Stephens Center. He regularly attended simulcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, delighted in the music of his church, and was a talented trumpet player who played in his high school band, earned a music scholarship to attend college, and continued to play and practice until the end of his life.

He was an athlete who played tennis well into his seventh decade. He taught many people the game, and no recounting of his life is complete without an image of him on a tennis court. While living in Talladega, he commuted to work on his ten-speed bike long before it was trendy. His level of fitness, which also included walking or running almost every day, contributed to the healthy and independent life he enjoyed until his mid-eighties.

He loved to work with his hands and especially outside in the yard. He could build anything he put his mind to, from sheds to picture frames, and was careful to use every scrap of wood he saved. Gardening was his most beloved pastime, and he tended a backyard garden of vegetables with love, pride and joy.

Although he did not pursue ministry as a vocation, he never lost his devotion to the church. At Talladega, he and his family were active members of St. Peter's Episcopal Church. In Birmingham, he regularly attended the Cathedral Church of the Advent, where he participated in small-group bible studies, and often wrote letters to the clergy pressing them on points of theology. He believed the church should receive all people with open arms, and that there should be no exceptions as to who is welcome at God's table.

He always worked to make the world a better place. He was active in the civil rights movement and led voter registration drives in the black community. He opposed armed conflict and was a staunch advocate for peace. He supported conservation efforts, understood the need to be better stewards of the earth, and consistently fought for a community in which all people regardless of their race, economic status, sexual orientation, national origin, or gender would have equal rights and equal opportunity.

On top of all this, he was an amazing cook who baked homemade bread every week for his family.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 53 years, Florence Moore Jackson, who passed away in 2008; his sister Lyleen Stewart, and his parents Lyle Clifford Jackson and Edna Barnett Jackson of Belleville, Illinois. He is survived by his son Bennet Lee Jackson and his wife Susan who reside in Anniston, Alabama; his son Robert Moore Jackson and his wife Vivian who reside in Burke, Virginia; his daughter Elizabeth Jackson Murray and her husband Jim who reside in Birmingham, Alabama; and his grandchildren: Julia Rae Murray, James Bennet Murray, Samuel Glenn Murray, Scott Johns, Evan Bradley Jackson, and Eliot Santiago Jackson.

A funeral service will be held at the Cathedral Church of the Advent on Saturday, September 25, 2021 at 2:00 p.m., followed by fellowship in Clingman Commons at the church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Music Discretionary Fund, Cathedral Church of the Advent, 2017 6th Avenue N, Birmingham, AL 35203 or the Parkinson's Foundation, 200 SE 1st Street, Suite 800, Miami, FL 33131.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.johnsridouts.com for the JACKSON family.