James Alan Smith

James Alan Smith, aged 62, died Sunday, March 16, 2025, at his home in Brandon, Mississippi, after a brief yet hard-fought battle with cancer. Visitation will take place on Thursday, March 20, 2025, from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm at Ott and Lee Funeral Home in Brandon. A Graveside service will follow at 2:30 pm at Crestview Memorial Garden, also in Brandon, with the Rev. Marie Smith officiating. Ott and Lee Funeral Home in Brandon is in charge of the arrangements.

James was born July 31, 1962, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, to the late Jimmy Lloyd Smith and Carolyn Jean Coffman. He spent his childhood and youth moving around due to his father’s Air Force career until the Smith family settled in Biloxi, Mississippi. He graduated from D’Iberville High School in D’Iberville, Mississippi, in 1980. Immediately after his graduation, James joined the United States Air Force. He attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1987 with a Bachelors in Geography and Cartography. James’s skills as a geographer and cartographer made a lasting impact in countless ways to our state and country.

Along with his career in the Air Force, James continued to serve our country at the Naval Oceanographic Office, where he surveyed and mapped the world’s oceans and produced the maps of the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War in 1991. His career in state and federal agencies would continue after his honorable discharge from the Air Force and included service in the ATF, USGS, MARIS, and MDEQ. Most recently, James worked for the USDA Farm Service Agency, where he spent his last twenty years of Federal service before retiring in 2023. That same year, he opened a consulting and cartography firm, Waypoint Mapping, and he was very active in several projects with Mississippi Rural Water.

James was fiercely committed to his family. In 1983, while a student at MGCCC, James met the love of his life, Marilyn Denise Broadus. They were married in Perkinston, Mississippi, on December 16, 1984, and celebrated 40 years of marriage this past December. Their only son, Brandon, was born in 1988. He was incredibly proud of his son Brandon, especially all he has accomplished and continues to accomplish in his career with CPKC Railway (formerly Kansas City Southern Railway.) James was also a railroad fanatic, aka a “foamer,” and loved to watch for his son to roll through town whenever he could. He also loved spending time on Brandon’s land in Shuqualak, helping to care for it and maintain it whenever Brandon could not. An animal lover, James was a loving and dedicated Poppi to all his pets and grandpets.

James is survived by his loving wife of over 40 years, Marilyn Broadus Smith, and his only son, Brandon Smith (The Rev. Marie Smith). He is also survived by his brother, Robert G. Smith (Alana) of Bardstown, Kentucky, uncle, Steve Coffman of Carthage, Miss., nieces Hailey Smith of Oxford, April Sims of Perkinston, and Angelica Michaels of Diamondhead, and several cousins and family friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, Jimmy and Carolyn Smith, father-in-law, Billy Broadus, and stepfather-in-law, Ed Willis.

Pallbearers include Race Gordon, Brandon Smith, James Taylor, Steve Shaw, Charlie Bridges, and Jim Locke. The family would like to thank Jackson Oncology and Baptist Hospice for their care and support since James’s diagnosis and everyone for all of the love and prayers they have received since his passing.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be made to either Southern Pines Animal Shelter in Hattiesburg, MS (https://www.southernpinesanimalshelter.org/) or The Wounded Warrior Project (https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/).