James Ray Calhoun

Funeral services for Mr. James Ray Calhoun were held Friday, November 2, 2018, at Riverwood Family, with interment at Riverwood Memoiral Park.
James Ray Calhoun, 89, of Brookhaven, passed away October 30, 2018, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
He was born March 16, 1929, to Earl and Mary Lutishia Bardwell Calhoun in Topeka, Lawrence County.
He graduated with a BA in Agribusiness in May 1950 from Mississippi State University. He briefly taught school in Lawrence County before being drafted to serve in the United States Air Force in the Korean Conflict. He served in various posts in the U.S. and in England.
He married Mary Maude Gunnell Calhoun on March 16, 1951. They were married for 64 years prior to her death in 2015.
Mr. Calhoun attended University of Houston for graduate studies in Agribusiness.
Upon his return to Mississippi, he became an entrepreneur and public servant in Lawrence County. He owned numerous businesses on Highway 27 in Lawrence County and served as Justice of the Peace.
Mr. Calhoun moved to Brookhaven and operated C&M Milling for many years. He was a top salesman for Purina Feed many years in a row. C&M Milling had two locations in Mississippi- Brookhaven and McComb. He retired from this business in 1995.
In his retirement, Mr. Calhoun started Jim’s Used Cars/First Street Auto in Brookhaven. He operated this for many years until his second retirement.
Mr. Calhoun spent his retirement years, after his wife’s death, in the Louisiana War Veterans Home in Jackson, Louisiana.
Mr. Calhoun was preceded in death by his parents, Earl and Lutishia Calhoun; his wife, Mary Maude Gunnell Calhoun; his grandson, James Oscar McDonald, IV, and all of his siblings.
Mr. Calhoun is survived by his daughter, Mary Sheila Calhoun Pitarro and her husband, Patrick Pitarro, of Hammond, Louisiana; his grandson, Jason Alexander McDonald, and his husband, Timothy Gipson of Brookhaven; his step-grandchildren, Scott and Heather Pitarro of Walker, Louisiana, and Brad and Katy Pitarro of Hammond, Louisiana, and numerous nieces, nephews and great-grandchildren.
If you would like to leave a word of sympathy to the Calhoun family, you may do so at www.riverwoodfamily.com.