Merry Christmas Classmates!

This Christmas may you be blessed with the joy of His presence and the quiet peace of the season.

THE LORD WILL BLESS HIS PEOPLE WITH PEACE.  

Psalm 29:11

Some Oldies To Enjoy!

An Old Barn

Thomas Milton Gordon, Jr.

Thomas Milton Gordon Jr., a lifelong Vicksburg resident, died Thursday, December 1, 2011.  He was 70.

Tommy worked in the family-owned business, Gordon's Auto Shop, for 30 years. After that time, he was employed by the Vicksburg Warren School District as transportation supervisor for 13 years.  For the last eight years, he was entrusted with the care of school children as a bus driver for the district as well as the St. Aloysius High School activities bus.

Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Rosemary Loftin Gordon of Vicksburg; two sons, Matthew Brian Gordon of Richland and Christopher Lee Gordon of Ridgeland; four brothers, Bobby Gordon (Helen) of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, David Gordon (Linda) of Vicksburg, Richard Gordon (Patti) of Vicksburg and Donnie Gordon (Linda) of Vicksburg; three sisters, Cecilia Harris of Pascagoula, Margie Bell Dardeau (Tony) of Vicksburg and Mary Frances Henry (Lee) of Byram; and three grandchildren, Patrick Alexander Gordon, Rhiannon Katherine Gordon and Elijah Kieran Gordon, all of Richland.

Mr. Gordon was preceded in death by his parents, Thomas M. Gordon, Sr., and Margaret Bell Gordon; his son, Patrick Bruce Gordon; and daughter-in-law, Brenda Adams Gordon.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, December 3, 2011, at Frank J. Fisher Funeral Home Chapel with Father P. J. Curley officiating. Burial will be at Cedar Hill Cemetery.  Visitation will be tonight from 5 until 7 at Frank J. Fisher Funeral Home.

Pallbearers are Charles Haley, John Heggins, John Piazza, Tony Dardeau III, Kevin Gordon, Jason Gordon, Josh Gordon and Mike Marshall.

Honorary pallbearers are Jimmy Andrews, Jr., Donald Reed, Jimmy Cathey, Jack Cooper, Lee Brown, Leo Koestler, Robert Bass and Joe Loviza.

Tommy Gordon Dies

VWSD Bus Driver Dies at Wheel - A longtime Vicksburg Warren School District bus driver who had just dropped off students died on his way home this morning after suffering an apparent heart attack, Warren Count Coroner Doug Huskey said.

Thomas "Tommy" Gordon, Jr., 70, was headed home from his morning bus route at 8:10 a.m. when his bus left the road in the 6400 of Halls Ferry Road and slid into a ditch, hitting a mailbox along the way, Huskey said.

The bus "eased off" the right side of the road at a slow speed and bumped a mailbox, authorities said.

Gordon was a 1958 graduate of St. Aloysius High School, who worked for years in his family automotive repair shop on Grove Street.

He worked as the school district's assistant transportation supervisor from 1990-2003, then began driving school buses, said Shannon Daniels, secretary for Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford, who was in meetings this morning.

"He was a sweet man," Daniels said, "just a very sweet man."

No one was available at the schools' transportation office to say which school Gordon had just left.

Gordon is survived by two sons and his wife, Rosemary.

Fisher Funeral Home has charge of arrangements, Huskey said.

The Vicksburg Post by Danny Barrett, Jr., dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com