Wilmer Fead Etheridge

Wilmer Fead Etheridge, long time resident of Port St Joe Florida, passed away surrounded by family on Thursday, December 26, 2025 following a brief illness. He was born January 16, 1928, in Columbus Georgia, to Willie Mitchell and Mildred Louise (Wages) Etheridge. After graduating from Columbus High School in 1945 he enlisted in the US Navy and served aboard the USS Corduba in the Pacific theater. He was honorably discharged in 1946, and attended the University of Georgia Savannah branch for one year, where he played basketball. After leaving school he traveled and worked erecting large radio and television antennas for several years. When he decided that wasn’t his line of work, one of his mother’s relatives got him a job at the St Joe Paper Company in 1953. He worked in various jobs there and ended his career in the engineering department doing project management work until his retirement in 1993.

Fead met the love of his life, Virginia Ophelia (Jean) Shelton in Port St Joe and they were married in January of 1955. They raised three sons together and led a full life that revolved around their children, the church, and Jean’s fiddle playing. After retirement he and Jean spent several years volunteering with the Christian Appalachian Project in Kentucky improving and rebuilding homes for the impoverished people in the region. Fead was instrumental in the design and building of the St James Episcopal Church and the St Peter’s Anglican Catholic Church in Port St Joe. He served many years as a traveling lay reader for the Episcopal Church conducting services in the Wewahitchka and Apalachicola churches. He also served as the interim pastor at the St James Episcopal church for a year when another priest was not available.

Fead was not a musician, Jean always told him he was tone deaf, but he loved to hear bluegrass music and was his wife’s biggest fan. They travelled extensively to festivals and fiddle contests through the years and he became quite a historian of the bluegrass music community. Any time someone came to visit him after Jean’s passing he was sure to play some of her music for them and tell them the history behind it.

Fead was preceded in death by his parents and a sister Lillian Faye Etheridge. Survivors include sons William Daniel (Brenda) Etheridge of Stevensville Michigan, Michael Lindsay (Karen) Etheridge of Port St Joe Florida, and Timothy Wade (Linda) Etheridge of Dothan Alabama. Also Surviving are grandchildren William, Mollie, Austin, Aisha, and Cylas.

A memorial service will take place at 11:00 AM Eastern Time on Friday, January 2, 2026 at St Peter’s Anglican Church on Garrison Ave in Port St Joe. In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to St Peter’s Anglican Church in Port St Joe.

Arrangements are entrusted to the caring staff of Comforter Funeral Home in Port St. Joe, Florida.