Remembering Jerry Wilburn: A Singular Voice From Mississippi's Hills and Hollers

You didn't have to know Jerry Wilburn to know of him. Anybody in Mississippi who's ever paid one scintilla of attention to the State Legislature would recognize his name.

Of course, you must be of a certain age. Younger generations will read this and wonder, so to speak, wth? Please forgive my Latin.

Mr. Wilburn, one of the more legendary members of the Mississippi Legislature in terms of oratory and accomplishments, died Jan. 13 at age 86, the result of time, nature and laboring over others.

Thankfully, Oxford-based U.S. District Judge Mike Mills was available to write the obituary. Know that Judge Mills is no novice in putting words on paper — most of them as intellectually vivifying as you'll ever read in a pleading from any courthouse setting.

He has written a book or two, and likely a few we don't know about. Perhaps he has breathed in so much of that rarefied Oxford literary air that it just comes to him naturally nowadays. Not really — Judge Mills already possessed those smarts long before he received an appointment to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2001. He served on the Mississippi Supreme Court for six years, preceded by a decade in the State House of Representatives alongside Mr. Wilburn. Both made their presence known.

They represented the state's hardscrabble corner of Northeast Mississippi, Wilburn from Mantachie, Mills from Fulton, neither hamlet very far from the late country singer Tammy Wynette's pastoral home of Tremont along the Tennessee-Tombigbee, a waterway slicing through the regions "hills and hollers." Red Bay and Red Elephants are nearby Alabama neighbors.

Part of the obituary said: "Jerry was a vessel testament of the muddy creeks, sandy bottoms and gentle drawls of his side of the river. Loved and admired by his family and friends, he sometimes baffled them. He was a personality peculiar unto himself. Sui generis."

"Jerry Wilburn had a keen insight into human nature, coupled with a good heart and a brilliant comedic wit. He was a master of malapropisms, word substitutions, manic misspellings. He sometimes invented words and massacred phrases. He loved to expose hidden motives."

There's a fine line state representatives should walk in focusing on their district back home, or the whole state. Jerry Wilburn walked that line with distinction. He's best remembered for helping to establish the North Mississippi Regional Center in Oxford in 1973 for folks with physical and mental disabilities.

Wrote Mike Mills: "He never forgot the downtrodden. He remembered being a child who sometimes did not have shoes or nice clothes." So, Mr. Wilburn "used his state retirement 13th check to fund the Wilburn Family Foundation, which has furnished shoes and clothing at Christmas for needy children … for the last 29 years. Most recently, (they) furnished shoes and clothing for 92 kids on Christmas."

The judge continued, "As we like to say in Itawamba County, he was a real character. We must go forward now alone, never forgetting the lessons he taught us: The value of mirth, or just plain foolishness, love for our fellows, and empathy, especially toward those who have the least among us."

Wilburn's wit was heard almost daily on the House floor. Once after colossally losing a vote important to him, he said: "Now I know how General Custer felt when he looked up and seen all them Indians." Mills added, "Jerry was authentic and despised pretense and uppitiness."

I can do neither Mr. Wilburn nor Judge Mills' right in this space. I urge you to read the full obituary written by Mr. Mills at mcneese-morrisfuneralhome.com, Fulton and Mantachie.

— Mac Gordon is a native of McComb. He is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.