Ivan Manning Ellis

Ivan Manning Ellis, a lifelong resident of Vancleave, passed away on November 24, 2023 at 95 years of age, surrounded by his loving wife and children.

He was born to Benjamin Edward Ellis and Jimmie Viola Manning at the family home on July 1, 1928.

Following his graduation from Vancleave High School in 1948, Ivan graduated from Mississippi Southern College (later University of Southern Mississippi) with a bachelor’s degree in education.  After graduation, he taught civics, American history, and government at Pascagoula Junior High School, after which he was recruited by the local Vancleave businessman (and his lifelong friend) TL “Tom” Murphy to manage the Bluff Creek Canning Company.  Over the next 40 years, Ivan had a varied career, alternating between teaching school and managing canning, timber and sawmill operations; the tool rooms at various Brown and Root projects; and facility and bus maintenance at the Ocean Springs School District.  He was further an entrepreneur in his own right, owning a successful Vancleave car lot, selling monuments and seafood, and twice running for the Mississippi State Legislature.

In his retirement, Ivan spent many mornings at BJ’s café on Highway 57, which had formerly been his father’s garage and where he had worked as a young man.  At the café, he drank coffee with friends, learned the community’s news, and recounted stories of the community’s history.  It was this time at the café that he became informally known as the “Mayor of Vancleave”.

Ivan was preceded in death by his parents, Benjamin and Jimmie; his sisters, Beatrice (Fleming) and Clara (Buchanan); and his brother, Benjamin.

He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Linda Merle (Entrekin); his children, Ivan Lee Ellis and wife Jennifer, Kelly Brenke and husband John, Ben Ellis and wife Jill; his grandchildren, Brandon Ellis and wife Meagan, Victoria Lawrence, John Lawrence, Connor Stringer, and Loryn Stringer; great grandchildren, Jaxon Ellis and Adaline Ellis; his sister, Judith Majkowski; sister in law, Helen Fletcher; many nieces and nephews; cousins; and loving friends, Robert Murphy, Deedy Holden, BJ and Holden Nolan, and Clayton and Kathy Clements.

His family would like to express their sincere gratitude to the home health professionals who cared for him over the past several years and to the medical staff of Ocean Springs Hospital.

A funeral service will be held at 11:00am on Saturday, December 2, 2023 at Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home, Vancleave, MS. Friends may visit one hour prior. Burial will follow at Vancleave #2 Cemetery.

Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Homes is honored to serve the family of Ivan Ellis.