Jean Richmond

Mary Jean Guthrie Richmond, known simply as Jean to her friends and family, was born at the family home a few miles west of Marvell on March 19, 1937, to John and Mamie Guthrie. She was next to the youngest of ten children, five sons and five daughters. They moved to Trenton soon afterwards where she lived throughout her school years. 

Jean attended elementary in a one-room school house in Trenton which was, ironically, next door to where she lived for the past 58 years. At Marvell High School, she played varsity basketball in grades 9-12 and was an All-State guard. Coach Cowsert was one of her favorite people, as well as Mrs. Rachel Rogers, her senior English teacher. She enjoyed writing poems and was quick with a story about chopping or picking cotton, pranks she pulled with her “partner in crime”, Myrtis Jean, walking to catch the school bus, and playing basketball with friends, Frances Davis and Leila Brickell. After high school, Jean worked at Bobbie Brooks, a garment factory in West Helena. She was a talented seamstress and often made matching clothes for herself and family members. 

On November 22, 1956, she married Robert Walter (Bob) Richmond. They shared 61 years together until his death in 2018. Most of her married life, she was a homemaker and mother to four children, two girls and identical twin boys. Over the years, sons and daughters-in-laws joined the family.  In 1984, she and Bob were blessed with the first of nine grandchildren and transitioned officially to “Granny and Granddaddy”. The first of seven great-grandchildren was born in 2013. 

Granny loved to cook, play dominoes, do crossword puzzles, and rock her grandbabies. One of her greatest pleasures was going to the “camphouse” in Greers Ferry to sit on the front porch while drinking coffee and watching for deer and other wildlife to appear. In her final months, she still enjoyed talking on the phone with her best friend, Myrtis Jean Duffel, her niece, Brenda, her children, grandchildren and siblings, Ruth and Kenny (until their hearing challenges kept conversations from being productive). 

Jean felt blessed to live independently (in “assisted living” as she called it with her trusted team of “assistants” at her side) until this past week when she became suddenly ill and was placed in hospice care at St. Bernard’s Flo and Phil Jones Hospice House in Jonesboro. 

Suggested memorials would include: Lifeword Ministry, PO Box 6, Conway, AR 72033; Calvary Baptist Church, Box 220, Marvell, AR 72366; Marvell Academy, PO Box 277, Marvell; or the Flo and Phil Jones Hospice House, 1148 E. Matthews Ave., Jonesboro, AR 72401.