A remarkable person. Peace be with the family.

Floyd, my southern gentleman brother-in-law, there are not enough words to express how sad I feel.

Tribute Part III

He saw that I was nosy and that I could write. He put the idea in my head that I'd make a good newspaper man and told me about how to go about becoming one. Long story short, not long after I got home to Jersey I finally knew what I wanted to get educated for and went after it. I've never regretted it. Even though my career in newspapers didn't last that long, doing the work of a reporter helped me develop skills that have served me well in every subsequent endeavor. Floyd and I never saw each other again after that but we kept in touch and I've never stopped thinking of him as one of the best friends I ever had, until recently the other end of some of my most memorable mail, email and phone exchanges, always a source of humor and wisdom and encouragement. 

He helped make the world a better place.

He helped make me a better me.

So if you can hear me, thanks for everything, old buddy. It was great having you around.

Jim

Tribute Part II

For most of his adult life Floyd was a newspaperman, one of a cadre of Southern journalists who educated the rest of the country about everything from civil rights to drug cartels. He was working as an editor on the Miami Herald when I met him in the middle of 1977. I'd come to Miami to visit with Linda's nephew John, my best friend in high school, at the time recently married and about to become a father. John introduced me to Floyd and Linda and we hit it off .

Now unlike John, who always had his act together. I was a screwup. After I got out of the service I just bounced from dead end job to dead end job with no direction, no clue as to where I was going.  I served in the Marine Corps so late in the Vietnam War that I didn't get shipped over, so combat trauma wasn't part of my problem but there was something else that I didn't get wise to until long after the fact. In the service you can accumulate a lot of responsibility at a remarkably young age. You become a very important person in your own little world and then one day that's all over and you're out there by yourself, just another guy without marketable skills looking for a job in a society where a lot of people think you might be damaged goods.  That can be demoralizing and inspire a lot of bad decision-making.

If it seems I'm talking too much about myself it's only because I have to if you're going to appreciate what Floyd was to me. Immediately upon getting to know me, he keyed right in on this broken piece of me and gave me some direction I badly needed that influenced the course of the rest of my life.

Story continued in next installment.

Tribute Part I

At the same time I mourn Floyd's loss I celebrate his life, that of a special man among special people. It helps to remember what he was part of, the young end of what Tom Brokaw dubbed "the greatest generation," the people who came of age during the Great Depression and World War II. I know a lot of them felt Brokaw was laying it on a little thick but there's no denying that all the adversity they faced made them better people. I think Floyd might have faced a little more adversity than some as a Catholic kid growing up in redneck territory in a single parent household. I remember he admired his mother a great deal. When he talked about it there was no "woe is me," just "this is the way it was."

Too young for World War II, he made himself available for whatever came next. What came next was the dictator of North Korea, granddaddy of the current dictator of North Korea, invading South Korea and trying to conquer it. Much of the free world, led by the United States, came to South Korea’s rescue and Floyd was part of the rescue party. Some call it "the forgotten war" but nobody who was there or who knew anybody who was can forget it. Some say we lost because we didn't liberate North Korea. Wrong way to look at it. Yes, we tried to liberate the north and we couldn't pull it off, but our main mission was to protect the south. We succeeded at that, we’re still helping South Korea protect itself and by fighting that fight we showed Stalin and Mao and their successors that they couldn't just roll over us. There's no way of knowing how much trouble we saved ourselves by convincing them that starting anymore would be a bad idea.

Those who served and survived came home to face more challenges like re-building the world and laying the foundation for the world we live in today.

Floyd didn’t just live through all this. He was an active participant.

The 2,000 character limit is forcing me to break this up. More to come.

The four of us on a rainy day at Centennial Park in Nashville.

We will always remember Floyd’s Intelligence, humor, love of people, especially children and animals. Sending love to Linda and family, Robert, Linda, Jessica, Olivia and Rhys

OBITUARY

Floyd Michael Jett

July 27, 1932 – August 18, 2025

Culley's MeadowWood Funeral Home

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