Local attorney Stanford Terry dies at 84|[11/25/05]
Published 12:00 am Friday, November 25, 2005
A war hero who was an impressive adversary in a courtroom and a quiet builder of Vicksburg landmarks died Thursday, Nov. 24, 2005.
J. Stanford Terry Jr. observed his 84th birthday three days earlier.
“He got his men out of a terrible firestorm of steel and lead,” Lucius Dabney said of his fellow attorney’s World War II service.
Mr. Terry, a native of Greenville and son of the late Joseph Stanford Terry Sr. and Kathleen Gist Terry, was an Army enlistee whose duties included the Battle of the Bulge.
In addition to the Combat and Infantryman badges, Mr. Terry received the Silver Star for Outstanding Bravery, the EAME Campaign Medal with two Bronze Battle Stars and the Purple Heart with an Oak Leaf Cluster.
His undergraduate and law degrees were from Ole Miss. Dabney described his fellow member of the bar as the type of man who led quietly and without much fanfare to call attention to himself.
Mr. Terry’s career here started with the late Uriah Grey Flowers. He later associated with Katzenmeyer, Katzenmeyer and Terry and then with Dent, Ward, Martin and Terry where he was a senior partner for many years.
“Stan was an old-school attorney,” recalled C. Edward Sorey, who was an associate in the Dent firm in the 1960s and 1970s. “He was very formal in the office and he was an able attorney.”
W.B. Duggins Jr. is another local attorney who has known Mr. Terry for many years.
“He was a very honored man of the law,” Duggins said. “If you ever tried a case against him, you had better be ready because he was ready,” Duggins said.
Mr. Terry was also president of the Magnolia Hotel Company, which owned the Hotel Vicksburg, Magnolia Motel and Restaurant and Delta Point, a luxury restaurant built overlooking the Mississippi River at today’s Ameristar site.
He was a director of Merchants National Bank, past president of the Vicksburg Kiwanis Club and was active in the Andrew Jackson Council of the Boy Scouts of America and was a member of the Newcomen Society of North America. He also served as president of the Chamber of Commerce and was once named Vicksburg’s Man of the Year.
Mr. Terry was a Licensed Lay Reader, Vestryman, Junior Warden and Senior Warden of Christ Episcopal Church.
Mr. Terry is survived by his wife, Mary Frances Terry, of Vicksburg; a daughter, Marilyn Dent Terry of Westminster, Colo.; two sons, Joseph Stanford Terry III of Brandon and Robert Dent Terry of Westminster; five grandchildren; his sister, Frances Terry Gage of Ridgeland, and a number of nieces and nephews.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Episcopal, with the Rev. Michael Nation, rector, and the Rev. Clifton McInnis, rector emeritus, officiating. Burial will be at Cedar Hill Cemetery with full military honors with Riles Funeral Home in charge.
Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. today at the funeral home and at 1 p.m. Saturday at the McInnis Parish Hall at Holy Trinity.
Memorials may be made to the Church of the Holy Trinity, Episcopal, 900 South St., Vicksburg, MS 39180; Christ Episcopal Church, 1115 Main St., Vicksburg, MS 39183 or to a favorite charity.