Obituary – Jackson Lee Wood

Published 12:10 pm Monday, May 12, 2025

Jackson Lee Wood, 81, of West Lafayette, Indiana, passed away Thursday, March 6, at the Indiana State Veteran’s Home in West Lafayette. In his home state of Alabama, Jack was fondly known as “Jackie Lee.”

Jack was born on January 3, 1944, in Greenville. He entered the US Army in July 1965 and fought in Vietnam where he was wounded in 1966. He was returned to Ft. Sam Houston, Texas and subsequently completed his Army service at Ft. Benning, Georgia. He received a Purple Heart and several top marksman awards from his Army service, being honorably discharged in 1967.

After his discharge from the Army, Jack received training for the fire service and as an EMT (emergency medical technician). He served as Fire Chief in Greenville. In 1968 he married Janice Bowen, and they later divorced. In 1974, he moved to West Lafayette, initially working for Home Hospital Ambulance Service. In 1977, he joined the Purdue University Fire Department from where he retired after 25 years of service. In 1979 he married Olivia Ann Bennett in Lafayette, Indiana and she survives him.

Jack had many and varied interests which he could fit into his off times at the Fire Department and continued many of them in his retirement years. He was an avid reader of American Native Indian history. During the seventies and eighties, he enjoyed rodeo sports including steer wrestling, calf roping, and team roping. He excelled in steer wrestling and participated as one of the top fifteen in the world at the International Rodeo Association Finals in the early 1980’s. After his rodeo career ended, he hunted deer and turkey in IN, and deer, turkey, elk and moose in Colorado. After their retirements, he and Olivia traveled to many places in the West visiting American Native Indian battlegrounds and most of the National Parks. In his last year of life at the Indiana State Soldiers Home, he enjoyed sharing stories with other veterans from World War I (WWI), WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. There are currently veterans over 100 years old at the Indiana State Veteran’s Home and their stories are not only accurate, but also historical and riveting.

Jack was from a large extended family. He was preceded in death by his parents, Howard and Maud (Branum) Wood; two sisters, Faye Wood Allen and her husband Algenon and Barbara Wood Phelps and her husband, Jeff and a brother, Mack Wood. Also preceding him in death were many favorite uncles. These included Hosie, from whom he had learned all about horses; Joe Lewis, from whom he had learned to drive buggies; and Johnny, from whom he had learned to hunt deer and turkey.

In addition to his wife of 46 years, he is survived by daughters, Robin Brown of Brewton and Rachel Wood of East Brewton and grandson, Jackson Perry of Brewton. Additional immediate family survivors include a niece, Janet Foster (Sam) of Decatur and two nephews, Russ Wood, of Daphne and William Allen (Alicia) of Corvallis, Oregon.

Funeral arrangements are being provided by Dunklin Funeral Home, 812 West Commerce Street in Greenville. There will be a visitation at the Dunklin Greenville Chapel on Friday, May 16, from 5 – 7 p.m. Jack’s stated wishes were to be cremated and his ashes interred in the family plot of Ebenezer Cemetery in the Pigeon Creek Community. There will be a graveside service on Saturday, May 17 at 11a.m. with Pastor David Wood officiating. The family requests memorial contributions in Jack’s name be sent to Sardis Baptist Church, c/o Nancy Wood Rives, 899 Four Pines Rd., Greenville, AL 36037.

For online condolences, please visit www.dunklinfh.com.