Edgar "Ed" Floyd Oakes

Funeral service for Edgar "Ed" Floyd Oakes, 77, will be 11 a.m., Thursday, February 16, 2017, at Gray Brown-Service Mortuary with Robert Norman speaking. The family will receive friends from 10-11 a.m. at the funeral home. Mr. Oakes passed away February 13, 2017. Ed was born June 21, 1939 at the Kings Daughters Hospital in Greenville, Miss., to Mr. and Mrs. George Frank Oakes, of Murphy, Mississippi. Ed was the youngest of seven children all of whom were raised at Murphy, where they enjoyed good country living. In January of 1950, Ed's daddy bought a store and home in Hollandale, Miss., about 12 miles from Murphy. On August 5, 1950, Ed's daddy passed away from a heart attack. Ed's mother ran the store for a few more years and then became ill. They rented the store out, but stayed in the house. On August 25, 1958, Ed's mother passed away from a heart attack. Both of his parents are buried in the cemetery in Hollandale, Miss. Ed moved to Clinton, Miss. and lived with his sister, Jean, and her husband, Joe Murphy, who was the football coach at Mississippi College. While living in Hollandale, Ed worked at many different jobs, which included delivering the Delta Democrat Times for about five years, working at the Roosevelt Theater, May's Department Store, Keith's Five and Dime, Wolf's Department Store, Sterling's Five and Dime, Linda's Department Store, and at the Leroy Percy State Park. Ed wasn't afraid to work, and he was always looking for some way to make some money. When a Mississippi National Guard Unit was formed/organized in Hollandale, Ed was one of the first seventeen year olds to join. The unit was called the 138th Eng. Company (Pon Bridge). He was in this unit from July 1956 until February 1959, when he enlisted in the active Army where he stayed until May 31, 1981, when he retired. During Ed's military service he took his basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. then went to Fort Gordon, Ga., for advanced Radio Teletype/Morse Code training. Other stateside assignments he had were: Fort Bragg, N.C., Fort Sill, Okla. (three times), Fort Hood, Texas, Fort Stewart, Ga., Red Stone Arsenal, Ala., Edgewood Germany (three times), Vietnam and South Korea (three times). Also during his military career he attended many chemical schools for training in this field and was an instructor in some of them. Ed's last assignment was as Chief Instructor of the Chemical/Biological Division for the U.S. Army Chemical School at Fort McClellan, Ala. from April 1980 until May 1981. After Ed retired from the Army, he worked at many jobs which included a security guard, car salesman, tech. writer for Northrop Inc., Roads and Ground Repairman at Fort McClellan and as Ammo Handler/Issuer at Fort McClellan Ammo Supply Point until he went to work for the Army's Chemical School at it's Chemical Defensive Training Facility where he worked as an Instrument Worker, which washed, dried, and certified/tested all of the protective masks and clothing and other equipment worn by students and instructors to make sure that they were safe for use and reuse. After Fort McClellan closed in August 1999, Ed went to work for a private contractor, EG&G Inc., with the Homeland Security's COBRATF (Chemical, Ordinance, Biological, and Radiological Training Facility), doing the same job that he did while with the civil service. Ed resigned from this job in April 2004 for total retirement, with one exception to work full time for what Ed called the Honey Do Inc., meaning his better half, his wife, Heiu Soo. In Ed's first marriage to Elsie Lou Parker, they had a daughter, Susan Dashielle, who lives in Coffeeville Miss., and by his second marriage to Jung Ja (Heiu Soo), they have two sons, Edgar Jr., better known as "Scooter" and James Michael, who passed away shortly after birth. Ed and Heiu Soo's son is buried in the Oakes plot at the cemetery in Hollandale, Mississippi. Ed has six grandchildren that he loves very much, Laurie Elizabeth Tharp, Joshua Craig Tharpe, Dylan Joe Sutton, Michael Ryan Oakes, Chloe Lynn Ann Smith and Bailey Nichole Skye Marshall. Also he has three great- grandsons and one great-granddaughter. Ed also leaves his wife of 43 years of marriage. He is preceded in death by his parents, four brothers, and a son. Online condolences at graybrownservice.com