V.J. Stephens

Published 12:00 am Sunday, October 14, 2007

NATCHEZ — Services for V.J. Stevens, 90, of Natchez, who died Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 at the Adams County Nursing Center, will be 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the First Baptist Church Natchez with the Rev. Dan Wynn officiating. Burial will follow at Greenlawn Memorial Park under the direction of the Laird Funeral Home.

Visitation will be 5 to 7:30 p.m. Monday at the church and from 9:30 a.m. until time of the services Tuesday.

Mr. Stephens was born Jan. 19, 1917 in Wisner, the son of Richard W. Stephens and Mary C. Stephens. As a member of “our greatest generation,” he was a veteren of World War II, enlisting in 1940 in Company B, 155th Infantry, 61st Infantry Brigade, 31st “Dixie” Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, headquartered in Natchez. Among his accomplishments in World War II was his involvement in the formation and training of the Women’s Army Corps, which was created to allow women to assist in the wartime effort thereby freeing more men to be utilized directly in the conflict with Germany and Japan.

After World War II, he returned to Natchez and married Martell Adams Stephens, and in 1946, he purchased the Darling-McCabe Insurance Agency which had served the insuran ce needs of the Natchez area since its establishment in 1920. He worked the night shift as the toll collector at the Natchez-Vidalia bridge so that he could study insurance textbooks at night. Then he worked during the day to establish and grow his insurance agency, Stephens Insurance Agency, which was subsiquently owned and operated by his son, Jack, and was merged to form Stephens and Hobdy Insurance in 1998.

He was a member of First Baptist Church in Natchez for more than 60 years, and he was also a Mason and Shriner holding membership in Harmony Lodge No. 1, the Order of the Eastern Star, and the York Rite and the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry obtaining this thirty-second degree. In 1952, he was elected an alderman for the City of Natchez.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Martell Adams, a son William Alan Stephens and eleven brothers and sisters.

Mr. Stephens is survived by sons Jack and wife Claudia and Charles and wife Sonya, all of Natchez, grandsons Rogers D. Stephens and wife, Lynn and William A. Stephens and wife, Gretta, all of Olive Branch, two great-granddaughters, Mary Katherine Jones Stephens and Anna Grace Roberts Stephens, of Olive Branch, brother Huey P. Stephens, of Wisner and numerous nieces and nephews.

Pallbearers will be Lee Thomas, Bill Rice, Marlon Copeland, Melton King, Rogers Stephens and William Stephens.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to the First Baptist Church, 150 D’Evereux Drive, Natchez.

With gratitude, the family would also like to thank the staff of The Magnolia House and the staff of the Adams County Nursing Center for faithfully and skillfully caring for his needs during his lengthy illness.

Online Condolences may be sent to the family at www.lairdfh.com.