James Ray Calhoun

Published 6:39 pm Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Funeral services for James Ray Calhoun, of Brookhaven, are Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, at 11 a.m. at Riverwood Family in Brookhaven with burial at Riverwood Memorial Park.

Visitation will be today, Nov. 1, 2018, from 5 until 8 p.m. at the funeral home.

Mr. Calhoun, 89, died Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was born March 16, 1929, to Earl and Mary Lutishia Bardwell Calhoun in Topeka in Lawrence County. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in agribusiness in May 1950 from Mississippi State University. He briefly taught school in Lawrence County before being drafted to serve in the United States Air Force in the Korean Conflict.

He served in various posts in the US and in England. He married Mary Maude Gunnell Calhoun March 16, 1951. They were married 64 years prior to her death in 2015. He attended University of Houston for graduate studies in agribusiness. Upon his return to Mississippi, he became an entrepreneur and public servant in Lawrence County. He owned numerous businesses on Hwy. 27 in Lawrence County and served as justice of the peace.

He moved to Brookhaven and operated C&M Milling for many years. He was a top salesman for Purina Feed many years in a row. C&M Milling had two locations in Mississippi — Brookhaven and McComb. He retired from this business in 1995. In his retirement, Mr. Calhoun started Jim’s Used Cars/First Street Auto in Brookhaven, MS. He operated this for many years until his second retirement. He spent his retirement years, after his wife’s death, in the Louisiana War Veterans Home in Jackson, Louisiana.

He is preceded in death by his parents; wife, Mary Maude Gunnell Calhoun; grandson, James Oscar McDonald IV; and all of his siblings.

Survivors are his daughter, Mary Sheila Calhoun Pitarro and her husband, Patrick Pitarro, of Hammond, Louisiana; grandson, Jason Alexander McDonald and his husband, Timothy Gipson, of Brookhaven; step-grandchildren, Scott and Heather Pitarro, of Walker, Louisiana, and Brad Katy Pitarro, of Hammond, Louisiana; and numerous nieces, nephews and great-grandchildren.

If you would like to leave a word of sympathy to the Calhoun family, you may do so at www.riverwoodfamily.com.