Page 44 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2016

PEOPLE a legend
Jerry O’Keefe:
“His work is done, and done well”
story by Susan Ruddiman photos courtesy of The O’Keefe Family
Jeremiah Joseph “Jerry” O’Keefe III accomplished more in one lifetime than what most would have done in several. This was brought home to his youngest son, Joseph “Joe” O’Keefe, when he wrote the eulogy for his father’s funeral.
“The task was daunting, to say the least,” Joe O’Keefe said.
Jerry O’Keefe died August 23 at the age of 93. His mind was sharp to the end, but as his body got weaker, he had friends sit him up in bed so he could write a check one last time to
a favorite candidate, Joe said. Cars covered the lawn of his Beach Boulevard home in Biloxi as family and friends paid their respects in his final days.
“He never stopped his civic engagement, that’s how long he stayed in the game,” Joe said.
The statesman’s funeral was in a style appropriate to his Catholic faith and to his roots — the O’Keefes have owned a funeral service since the 1800s. The Mass was at Nativity BVM Cathedral in Biloxi on August 27. As the procession crossed the Biloxi Bay Bridge, the Patriot Guard and a group of pilots honored him, and at the Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home on Porter Avenue in Ocean Springs, his casket was transferred
to a horse drawn hearse for his final journey to Evergreen Cemetery overlooking Old Fort Bayou.
44 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • October 2016
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