Jack McDermid

Jack McDermid, 83 of Diamondhead lost his two year battle with lymphoma, Sunday March 7, 2010 in Biloxi. Mr. McDermid was born in Seattle, Washington but always called the Gulf Coast home. Enlisting in the U.S. Army at the age of 13 he transferred into the Army Air Corps and was detailed to Keesler AFB in 1947 where he met and married Edith B. Yeager, his wife for 54 years upon her untimely death in 2002. Chief Master Sergeant McDermid retired from the Air Force after a 23 year career in aircraft and missiles in 1966, returning to the coast to the then, Mississippi Test Facility, to work on the Apollo moon rocket program. Mr. McDermid was also a Long Beach harbor master, Long Beach auxiliary policeman, NRA firearm safety Instructor, avid fisherman, world’s greatest hero and beloved father to five children. He was preceded in death by his wife Edith B. McDermid, and daughter Mrs. June C. Glenn of Long Beach. He is survived by two daughters, Marjorie J. Barnett of Jacksonville, AR and Linda M. Ladner of Delisle, MS and two sons, John E. Dunnavant of Las Vegas, NV and Jack G. McDermid of Diamondhead, MS as well as five grandchildren. Of many of this entire generation, and this man in particular, George S. Patton said it best; “Let me not mourn for the men who have died fighting, but rather let me be glad that such heroes have lived.”, and so we shall forevermore. The family prefers memorials to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (www.LLS.org), or St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, (www.stjude.org), Attn: Memorial/Honor Program, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38148-0552. Family private services will be held under the direction of Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home in Gulfport. 15th St., Gulfport. View and sign register book at www.bradfordokeefe.com