Tupelo Mayor Reacts To Reed Passing

STATEMENT OF TUPELO MAYOR JASON SHELTON

The community-first businessman, who helped drive Tupelo forward, Jack Reed, Sr. died today. He was 91.
“On behalf of the City of Tupelo, I would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family of Jack Reed, Sr., who will remain in our thoughts and prayers,” said Mayor Jason Shelton. “Mr. Reed has always been a true embodiment of the ‘Tupelo Spirit,’ and was instrumental, along with Mr. George McLean, the owner and publisher of the Daily Journal, in developing the Tupelo model of civic pride, civic involvement and civic participation that has so greatly benefited our city and our region.”
Mayor Shelton continued, “In an oral history taken about 15 years ago, Mr. Reed talked about Tupelo’s public education system as one of the city’s biggest selling points and is perhaps the most prominent leader in our city who helped guide our community peacefully through the Civil Rights Era, he and his family and friends kept their children in the public schools while other communities in Mississippi had private schools to escape desegregation.”
Mr. Reed saw the benefit of public education as an economic development tool to raise the quality of life for all citizens of our state, even to the point of being asked by Gov. William Winter to sit on the committee, which framed the Education Reform Act, the nation’s first educational reform act. Later, Gov. Bill Allain asked him to serve on the Mississippi State Board of Education – a position he held for 10 years.
“He was the epitome of a business and community leader, from the corner family store Reed’s to positions on the boards of the Community Development Foundation and CREATE. He will be
missed by all,” said the mayor. “We all strive to live our lives in such a manner that we leave the world a better place, and Mr. Reed certainly lived such a life.”