Jim Richardson

Jim Richardson

On April 4th, 1942, Jimmy McArthur Richardson was born in Manila, Arkansas, the last child of John Henry and Pauline Peeve Richardson. His dad was a Methodist pastor and his mother was a homemaker and part time substitute schoolteacher. Jim had four sisters; Rosemary (who Jim had never met until he graduated from high school), Ellen, Martha, Norma and a brother, John Henry, Jr.

By the time he was eight years old, Jimmy had learned to drive and had even taught his mother how to drive. That same year, he had a job driving a tractor for a neighbor farmer. From that point on, Jim's life was filled with an amazing succession of jobs. He delivered newspapers on an old bike he found in a junkyard and repaired. He worked for a beekeeper, at a grocery store and drove livestock feed to farmers up in the hills.

As a Methodist pastor, Jim's father was frequently moved to another charge and the family was sent to Vanndale, Arkansas. It was here that Jim had the most graphic memories. It was here he started to school, where he met a lifetime friend named Gene.

When Jim was ten, he and his family huddled in a central room while their entire house was blown away around them by a tornado. Not one family member was hurt.

In time, the family was moved again and again.

By the time Jim was fourteen or fifteen, he was driving a combine during school summer breaks through Kansas and on up to the Canadian border. One farmer liked his work so much that he offered to adopt Jim!

These and many other jobs Jim worked...picking cotton, working for the railroad, bossing a gang of dockworkers on the coast of Oregon. He earned a college degree in accounting and went to work for his brother, who had moved to San Diego, building houses. Jim answered an ad in the newspaper looking for someone to head up a team to clean up nuclear waste on one of the islands in the Pacific Ocean where the atomic bomb had been tested. The team did the job, but the island is still closed to visitors.

This is not a complete list of jobs Jim Richardson worked, but it is the last job he had which sent him to every part of the world...many times to dangerous sites protected by armed guards. The company he worked for made huge rock crushers, and Jim was sent along with them to install them and teach the workers how to run the machinery. He went from the African Sahara to the hotspots in the Middle East. He loved the job, was good at it, but his contract had a clause in it that included mandatory retirement at age eighty. Jim and his wife, Yusri, moved to Henderson, Tennessee near his sister, Ellen. He joined the Big Springs Methodist Church and made many, many friends. He was also a member of Bear Creek Church. His untimely death will be deeply mourned.

Jim passed away Wednesday, June 18, 2025, at Jackson-Madison Co General Hospital in Jackson.

Funeral services will be 11:00 AM, Monday, June 23, 2025 at Shackelford Funeral Directors - Casey Chapel in Henderson with Josh Cantrell officiating. Burial will follow at Bear Creek Church Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Archie Hardee, Adam Brown, Billy Murchison, JR Price, Benny Harper, Colby Miller and Nate Cantrell.

The family will receive friends at Crook Avenue 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM Monday.