Gregory Douglas Jaynes

1948 - 2019

Gregory Douglas Jaynes — writer, nomad and spinner of tales — died March 5 in New Orleans of complications from a brief illness. Mr. Jaynes was born in Florence, Ala., in 1948 and, while he was still young, moved to Memphis with his parents, Doug and Joyce. There, as a young reporter, he covered the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for The Commercial Appeal. Ambition and restlessness guided him to newspapers in Nashville, Atlanta, Miami and New York. At The New York Times, specifically, he was a reporter, columnist and correspondent. For two years, he covered East Africa while based in Nairobi, Kenya. Later came stints at Time, Life and National Geographic magazines. When he traveled, it was with books, and where he settled — be it Savannah, Washington or Brooklyn — the shelves were home to an eclectic assortment where Hemingway, Montaigne and Walker Percy were neighbors. He wrote his own books along the way, including two volumes of memoirs. First, "Sketches From a Dirt Road," written while living in a farmhouse wrapped in the north Georgia hills. It is a young man's book, light on wisdom but full of grace and charm. At 50 came "Hell on High Water: A Really Sullen Memoir," a reflection on life after misadventures aboard a Russian freighter. A third memoir was in progress at his death, and events suggest he had not lost his love of the dramatic. He died with Mardi Gras at full bore, a parade below his window and the saints marching in the distance. He was proceeded in death by his wife, Madeline Greenleaf Jaynes. He is survived by his son, Todd Douglas Jaynes; daughter, Whitney Ann Laidlaw; sisters, Teresa Jaynes McLeod and Susan Jaynes Neal; brothers, Michael Thomas Jaynes and Philip David Jaynes; and grandchildren, Andrew Chapman Laidlaw and Amanda Jayne Laidlaw.