Herman Oswell Thompson Jr.

Herman Oswell Thompson, Jr., 75, peacefully passed away at University of Mississippi Medical Center on Friday, January 25, 2013. Visitation will be held at Wright and Ferguson on Highland Colony Parkway on Sunday, January 27, from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m. The funeral will be conducted by Reverend Ricky James on Monday, January 28, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 621 Duling Avenue, Jackson, with visitation beginning at 10:00 at the church. Burial will follow at Lakewood Memorial Park.

Herman was born on February 6, 1937, in Jackson, firstborn of the four children of Herman and Daisy Conerly Thompson. He was a life-long member of the Methodist church. He attended Duling Elementary, Bailey Junior High, and graduated from Central High School in the class of ’55. As a member of the ROTC program at Central, he received recognition as an expert rifleman, a skill which he maintained throughout his life, to the misfortune of a vast number of squirrels who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. He received a degree in business from Mississippi State, which he put to use for a time during the sixties as a bookkeeper for the Army Corps of Engineers Revetment Crew on the Mississippi River, a job he was drawn to by his fascination for all things “river”. The culmination of that enchantment occurred in 1989 when at age 52 he realized his dream of solo canoeing the entire Mississippi from the headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, all the way into the Gulf of Mexico, camping on the banks at night and paddling during the day. He made copious notes of his experience which he organized into a book from which he made presentations upon request. He never tired of sharing the memory of that journey.

Herman married Betty Jane Davis in 1963, and they had three daughters. Betty passed away in 1992. He was happiest in the great outdoors, always seeking adventure, but working here and there in landscaping, or cutting down trees. He had little use for material possessions, air conditioning, cell phones, or answering machines. He did, however, enjoy cultivating daffodils, listening to New Orleans jazz, and dancing to the music of the fifties, regularly joining a group of dancing friends to entertain residents at various nursing homes. He had a mind for detail, and a great recall of trivia. He spent countless hours in his later years on the Pearl River. He was a friend to all he met, always willing to lend a helping hand wherever he was needed. Herman loved his family and was a good companion and attentive caretaker of his mother the last 19 years of her life to age 102, enabling her to live out her days in her own home. Among his better qualities were his generous attitude of acceptance of others, his straightforward lack of hypocrisy, his faith in God’s redeeming grace, and his unquestioning belief in Jesus Christ.

He is predeceased by his parents, the mother of his children, and his infant son, Michael. His survivors include daughters Sheila Weaver, her husband Larry; Isabelle Brisendine, her husband Art; Heather LaRoe, her husband David, and ten grandchildren. Other survivors are his sister, Colleen Lipscomb of Memphis, his brother Dick Thompson of Eustis, Florida, and his brother Clifford Thompson and his wife, Cheryl, of Jackson, seven nephews, three nieces, and a number of well-loved cousins and friends.

Anyone wishing to do so may honor Herman’s memory with a donation to The Mustard Seed, 1085 Luckney Road, Brandon, MS, 39047.