Mitchell Wayne Redfern

Mitch was a noted wood carver

An excellent husband and father

He worked hard all his life

For his kids and his wife

Now he’s singing with Jesus up yonder

Mitchell (Mitch) Wayne Redfern, age 63, passed away on May 23, 2025. Born on August 23, 1961, in Jackson, MS, he was a devoted husband to Olievia Redfern for 38 years, and a loving father and Papaw to three children and four grandchildren (and one very spoiled cat).

Mitch was hard working, creative, playful, and unerringly kind. He was a man overflowing with love, which he expressed equally through acts of service and joyful silliness. His family often joked that he looked like a grizzly bear but was actually a big teddy bear. Mitch would often work full days at the MDOT, cook dinner for his family, do any jobs that needed done at home, work on his many personal projects, and still offer help to friends and family who needed it. He was a skilled, prolific, and unpretentious artist, producing hundreds of hand-carved wooden sculptures with his handy box-cutter, which his family will treasure for years to come, not to mention the many poems and silly songs he wrote over the years.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Ernest Redfern and Bonnie Butler Redfern. He is survived by his wife Laura Olievia Beemon Redfern; his three children, Ashley Hammack and her husband Jason, Jessica Redfern, and Roman Redfern; four siblings, Ernestine Walters and her husband Alton of Crystal Springs, Judge Richard Redfern and his wife Brenda of Richland, Bernadine Norsworthy and her husband Sid of Florence, and Lucy Tyson and her husband Ricky of Hazelhurst; and his four grandchildren, Aymae Hammack, Annah Redfern, Roman Hammack, and William Redfern, as well as many friends and extended family members who will miss him and the joy he always carried with him.

We find comfort in knowing that his compassion and fun-loving spirit live on in the lessons he taught us, the love he shared, and the memories we will cherish forever, and we know that we will meet him again in the age to come.

The family will have a memorial service on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. at Star Baptist Church in Florence, MS. Burial will follow the service in Star Cemetery in Star, MS.