HERMAN WOODROW ALFORD
AAFA #0068
1915 MS –1988 MS
THE CLARION-LEDGER / JACKSON DAILY NEWS
Jackson, Hinds Co., MA—Sunday, 25 September 1988
PHILADELPHIA [Neshoba Co.]—Herman W. Alford, 72, a lawyer,
died of cancer on Saturday [September 24] in F.G. Riley Memorial Hospital in
Meridian.
Services are 4 p.m. today at the First Baptist
Church with burial in Cedar Lawn Cemetery. Visitation is before services at
McClain-Hays Funeral Home.
Mr. Alford, a Philadelphia native, was a lawyer
with Alford Thomas & Kilgore. He was a deacon at the First Baptist Church,
where he also taught Sunday school and held other church offices. He was a
veteran of World War II and was retired from the Mississippi National Guard as
a brigadier general.
Mr. Alford was a member of the Philadelphia
Masonic Lodge, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the
Philadelphia Exchange Club and the Neshoba County, the Mississippi and the
American bar associations. He was a director of the Neshoba County Fair
Association and the Citizens Bank and was on the county's Industrial Development
Committee for several years.
“He had a love for his county and this state
that was almost unbelievable,” said Robert Thomas, Mr. Alford’s son-in-law and
law partner. “He like to comment that in his lifetime he was able to see
Neshoba County go from a horse-and-buggy age, and that was how he described it,
to an industrial age, where everybody who wanted a job could get one....”
Mr. Alford’s daughter, Janne Thomas of
Philadelphia, said her father found the time to get involved in needed
projects.
“Over the years, he just began to see things
that were needed. It would just come to his attention and he would just see
that it was done....”
Survivors include: wife, Gwendolyn; sons, Herman
Alford Jr. of Philadelphia and Patrick Alford of Louisville; daughter, Janne
Thomas of Philadelphia; brother, Bennett Alford of Kosciusko; sister, Cleo
McLemore of Panama City, Fla.; and four grandchildren.
Photos
from Cedarlawn Cemetery, Philadelphia, Neshoba Co., MS—www.findagrave.com
Permission
granted by the photographer, LWB
AAFA NOTES: SSDI
records show that Herman Alford (SS# issued in MS) was born 26 Sept 1915.
We included the obituaries of his wife,
Gwendolyn Poole Thomas Alford; his daughter Janne Alford Thomas; and his
brother Bennett Warren Alford in Mississippi Obituaries.
In March 1983 Gil Alford received a letter from
Mr. Herman Alford, Attorney at Law in Philadelphia, MS. The letter started as
follows: “Your letter addressed to Pat Alford dated February 28, 1983, was
opened by me, his father. I note that you had written him some previous letters
to which he has not responded.” There followed a warm five year association
between Mr. Herman and Gil Alford with several exchanges of significant amounts
of Alford information. Mr. Herman Alford made financial donations to both the
association and before that to the work of Gil Alford. As member #0068 he was
one of the founding members of AAFA.
Herman was born in Philadelphia, Neshoba Co.,
MS, the son of Benjamin Warren Alford and Phronettie Davidson. According to
Herman, she had previously been married to John Hamrick/Hambrick.
Herman married Gwendolyn P. Thomas 6 July 1942
in Hinds Co., MS, and they had Herman Alford Jr., Patrick Alford and Janne
Alford. Janne married Robert Thomas, Herman’s law partner.
Benjamin's parents were John Madison Alford and
his second wife Sarah Frances Cooper. John Madison was the son of John Alford
born about 1800 in North Carolina. A complete chart on this branch of the
Alford family was printed in Gil Alford's newsletter, ABOUT ALFORDS,
issue #4, July 1983.
He was preceded in death by siblings Jewell,
Clennie, and Homer Lee Alford.
His lineage: Herman Woodrow 1915 MS1,
Benjamin Warren 1875 MS2, John Madison 1826 GA3, John
1801 NC4.
