Clinton Marcus Plummer, Jr.

Clinton Marcus Plummer, Jr., 83, of Biloxi died Wednesday, April 5, 2006 in Biloxi. He was born in Gulfport and was a life long resident of the Gulf Coast. He was in real estate and a home builder for 57 years and a member of Coalville United Methodist Church. C. M. Plummer, Jr.’s drive to success was brought about by necessity. When his father died while C.M. was just a teenager, he left behind a wife and nine children. As the eldest son, it was C. M.’s responsibility to take care of the family, and he immediately went to work. He first started work at the newly-established Keesler AFB, then moved on to work at Ingalls Shipyard. There his innate ability and intelligence became evident, when, after working there for less than a year and still a teenager, he was promoted to leaderman, supervising men twenty years his senior. His shipbuilding career was cut short when he was drafted into the Navy in WWII, when another aspect of his character, his thriftiness, became apparent. While stationed overseas he saved his sailor’s pay, sending it home to his mother, giving his family the means to purchase the forty acres in Woolmarket his father had sharecropped. After WWII he moved to Detroit where he tried his hand working in an auto plant, but the pull of the Mississippi Gulf Coast was too strong, and he returned to Woolmarket and his large extended family, with his new Pennsylvanian wife in tow. His first experience in the building business came working as a laborer tearing down Army barracks at Gulfport Field. Always a quick study, he learned how buildings were constructed as they were torn down. He learned carpentry and put this knowledge to use building houses, while at the same time building his own family, which ultimately grew to five sons. Through his hard work and determination he laid the foundation for a successful homebuilding business that his sons C. M. III and Ronnie will continue, and his example has been an inspiration and guide to all his sons. In his 57 years as a business man his wit, humor and generosity have earned him friends, and both they and his family will remember him for many years to come. He was preceded in death by his two wives, Ibby Plummer and Eleanor Plummer-Brewer; mother, Nancy McInnis Plummer and father, Clint M. Plummer; two sisters, Virginia Fayard and Evelyn Cunsolo; and a brother, Herbert Plummer. He is survived by five sons, C. M. Plummer, III and wife, Joyce of Woolmarket, Joseph T. Plummer and wife, Margaret of Gulfport, Norris D. Plummer and wife, Cynthia of Gulfport, Michael A. Plummer of Gulfport, and Ronnie J. Plummer and wife, Stephanie of Woolmarket; three step-children, Alva Peden of Gulfport, Doc Stevens of Natchez, and Laura Cooper of Pascagoula; three brothers, William T. Plummer of Woolmarket, James C. Plummer of Gulfport, Norris Plummer of Woolmarket; two sisters, Stella M. Paige of Woolmarket, and Dixie Schankin of Gulfport; fifteen grandchildren and twenty-six great-grandchildren. Visitation will be Friday evening April 7, 2006 from 6 until 9:00 p.m. at Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home, O'Neal Road, Gulfport. The funeral service will be Saturday April 8, 2006 at 11:00 a.m. at Coalville United Methodist Church where friends may visit from 10 a.m. until the service. Interment will follow at Woolmarket Cemetery. View and sign register book at www.bradfordokeefe.com.