Jerry Bustin

Memorial services for retired attorney and municipal judge Jerry Lee Bustin will be held Thursday, April 21, 2022, at 1 p.m. at the Ott and Lee Funeral Home in Forest with Revs. Larry Duncan and Billy Bustin officiating.

Visitation will be held 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, 2022 and 12-1 p.m. prior to the beginning of the services. Interment will follow at Eastern Cemetery in Forest.

Bustin, 79, died peacefully at his home in the Goodhope community on April 15 following an extended illness. He was a lifelong resident of Scott County.

Born on Dec. 26, 1942, Jerry was the son of the late Robert Earl and Minnie Lee Bustin of the Hillsboro community. Jerry grew up working on the family farm from a young age.
He was a graduate of Forest High School, where he was a Bearcat football player.

Jerry later earned his undergraduate degree from Mississippi College. After college, he went to work as a history teacher and football coach at Moselle High School and worked his way through law school at night at former Jackson School of Law (now the Mississippi College School of Law).

After earning his law degree, Jerry opened his law practice in Forest in 1968, specializing in criminal defense, personal injury, and family law. He served for 42 years as the municipal judge in the City of Forest court and served as a special chancellor for 30 years and was a member of the Scott County Bar Association and the Mississippi Bar Association.

He represented many indigent clients and clients who were likely guilty of crimes, but Jerry believed every citizen deserved the right to legal representation under the law.

Jerry was also a talented writer of legal fiction and of memoirs of his recollections of life in the rural post-World War II Deep South. He published a novel, To Kill a Viper, in 2001, and his essay entitled “The Coon Hunt” was included in the 2001 University Press of Mississippi book Christmas Memories from Mississippi alongside the works of Eudora Welty, Willie Morris, Elizabeth Spencer, Barry Hannah, William Faulkner and other notable Mississippi writers. Jerry’s interests in writing and writers were enthusiastic and lifelong.

Survivors include his wife, Jeannette Henderson Bustin; children: Lori Touliatos (John) of Memphis, Tenn.; Tina Sorey (Todd) of Brandon, Miss.; Lisa Cannella (Norman) of Tampa, Fla.; Ray Thompson (Brenda) of Perry, Ga.; and Tina Wicker (Joey) of Florence, Miss.; and grandchildren Spero Touliatos, Carli (Gus) Walt, Cameron (James) Basse, Weston Touliatos, and Lawson Touliatos; Zach Sorey, Saige Sorey, Gage Sorey and Silas Sorey; Ashlin Cannella; Rayanna Thompson and Gabe Thompson, Josh Rogers and Clancy Rogers; and Josie Morehead (Zack), Jordan Parchman (Zach), and Jace Wicker (Cydney Claire); three great-grandchildren: Holly Touliatos, Cade Morehead, Bodie Wicker.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his granddaughter Cailin Cannella, and his brother Bill Bustin.

Pallbearers will be Spero Touliatos, Paul Henderson, Shane Henderson, Gabe Thompson, Ray Thompson, Brock Pope and Sid Salter. Honorary pallbearers will be Joey Wicker, Jace Wicker, Vaden Jackson, and Ollie Shumaker.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial gifts to the Salem Baptist Church, 2380 Salem Road, Lake, MS 39092.

Funeral services are provided by OTT & LEE Funeral Home of Forest.  Telephone: (601) 469-3412