Funeral services for Mr. Henry Franklin Harrison, age 82, of Jackson, will be held Friday, April 26, 2019 at First United Methodist Church, 200 South Church Street, in downtown Jackson. Visitation will be held in Disciple Hall at the Church from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. with service following at 1 p.m. in the Sanctuary. The Reverends Sky McCracken and Paul Clayton will officiate. A short graveside service and burial will be held at Ridgecrest Cemetery on Ridgecrest Road immediately following the service.
Mr. Harrison passed away on Monday, April 22, 2019 at Jackson Madison County General Hospital with his devoted wife, Margaret, by his side. He was born on November 20, 1936 in Marie, Arkansas. Henry was the son of William Emory Harrison and Mary Elizabeth Kinney Harrison. His siblings were the late Shelton Elmore Harrison (Brucene) and Johnny Marvin Harrison (Patricia), Sandra Harrison Alliston (Vaughn) and Martha Ann Harrison McGee (Roger). Children are Mitzi Ann Mathenia (Randy) and Jennifer Lynn Luttrell (Roger). Grandchildren are Dr. Michael Keith Mathenia (Louise), Patrick Finn Mathenia, Cameron Lee Mathenia, Jordan Frederick Mathenia, Evan Mathis Luttrell, Austin Lee Luttrell, Maria Katherine Luttrell, and Margaret Ann (Maggie) Luttrell. Great grandchildren are Adalyn Kate Mathenia and Rebekah Mae Mathenia. He also leaves behind numerous nieces, nephews, as well as great nieces and nephews.
Pallbearers to the service will be grandsons, Michael, Patrick, Cameron, and Jordan Mathenia, Austin Luttrell, and nephews, Dr. Roger McGee, Jr., and Dr. Will Middlecoff, and niece, Francesca McConnell. The Wesley Sunday School class is asked to sit together as honorary pallbearers.
Mr. Harrison graduated from Shawnee High School in Joyner, AR and attended Humes High School in Memphis, TN where he was a classmate of Elvis Presley. His college education was at Ouachita Baptist College in Arkadelphia, AR, and Memphis State University in Memphis. He also attended classes at Wayne State University and Lambuth University. At Ouachita he obtained a BS in Speech, with a minor in Bible and while still in college became an ordained Baptist minister. Henry was an outstanding athlete; he was a three year letterman in football and coached the boxing team at OBU. His boxing career was illustrious. He won the Sugar Bowl title in New Orleans, the Mid-South Golden Gloves five times, The National Golden Gloves twice, and the Finals of the National AAU. It was in Chicago at the National Titles in his class where he won the Sportsmanship Trophy and Cassius Clay won Best Boxer in his class. He was inducted into the Memphis Sports Hall of Fame.
He was in the automobile business for many years in Memphis (where he met his wife and they were married at the Bartlett United Methodist Church.) After moving to Jackson in 1979, he was first in the Automobile Business at Harrison Toyota and later owned Concrete Products on Riverside Drive. Henry became very active in civic affairs in Jackson: Symphony Board, Chamber of Commerce, Exchange Club (where he was a leader in the establishment of and was the first president of the board of The Carl Perkins Child Abuse Center.) He was Exchange Club Man of the Year in 2000. He was later a member of Jackson Rotary Club where he was a Paul Harris Fellow and was a Mason. The Harrison family promptly joined First United Methodist Church where Henry taught the Wesley Sunday School Class for over 30 years. He served in various other positions over the years and was at one time Chairman of The Administrative Board.
Henry was responsible for the starting and continuing of two mission projects at First Methodist: A prison ministry program where inmates were brought to the church for moral and spiritual training and received instruction in jobs training such as masonry, carpentry, forklift driving, and other skills. His brainchild of a Music for Esteem Program brought at-risk children into the church where volunteers taught them piano lessons and instructed them in religious studies.
In 2001 Henry began the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame in downtown Jackson. Thousands of tourists from countries all over the world and almost every state in the US and Canada have visited this tourist spot and signed their names on the walls of the museum.
Henry loved his family, his church and the city of Jackson. He was quoted multiple times as saying “My dad taught me that when I take out of the soil, I am to replace it with more and better than I took out. I have tried to do that through my business, my church, my volunteer work, and my personal life.” Henry will be missed greatly by his family, the citizens of the City of Jackson, and by lovers of music of many styles.
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