Jessie J. "Sandy" Thompson

Funeral services for Jessie J. “Sandy” Thompson, 85, of Shreveport, will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, September 11, 2023 located at Rose-Neath Funeral Home Chapel, 2500 Southside Drive, Shreveport, Louisiana 71118.  Visitation will be held from 8:30 a.m. until service time on that day. Burial will follow at Northwest Louisiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Keithville, Louisiana.  Officiating the service will be Dr. Murry Hodge.

Sandy was born on March 13, 1938 to parents Guy Wilson and Opal Lee Thompson in Chidester, Arkansas, and he passed away September 2, 2023, in Shreveport, Louisiana, after a long and courageous battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He loved his family fiercely and was an inspiration to those who knew him for his determination to fight courageously against the disease and through adversity.

Jessie, also known as “Sandy” to his friends, was raised in Arkansas and later served in the U.S. Army in San Antonio, Texas. Sandy met his wife Gail when he was in the Army, while she was attending Centenary College in Shreveport. They married in November 1963 and later lived in Greenwood, Louisiana. Sandy was a 32^nd Degree Mason, an avid fisherman, duck hunter and the ultimate outdoorsman. He loved to fish on Toledo Bend with one of his very best friends, Johnny Holley, and they spent many days on the water together. He began his career at Western Electric in 1966 and retired after working there for 34 years. His sense of humor was bigger than he was, and he loved to make people laugh. His greatest joy of all was to tell people about Jesus and how they could come to know him and have a personal relationship with him, just as he had. He became a member of Summer Grove Baptist Church in 1971 and taught many Bible Studies and Sunday School classes and served faithfully as a Deacon and on many other committees there throughout the years.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers, Guy Edward, J.C., and Richard Lee Thompson, and sister Jean Morrow. Left to cherish his memory are his wife of nearly 60 years, Gail Walker Thompson, his children, Vicki Chance, and Jonathan Thompson and wife Laurie, his grandchildren, Joshua Chance, Jared Chance and wife Megan, Mary Sadler, Georgia, and Adelaide Thompson, and his sister Barbara Belrose and husband, Red.

Honoring him as pallbearers will be Jonathan Thompson, Joshua Chance, Jared Chance, Charles Chance, Gerald Dyess, and Jimmy Windham.

His family would like to thank the administration and staff at St. Joseph Hospice Care for their love, care, and support of Sandy in the last few months and days of his life.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials may be made to Summer Grove Baptist Church, 8924 Jewella Avenue, Shreveport, LA 71118; the Parkinson’s Foundation, 200 SE 1^st Street, Suite 800, Miami, FL 33131 (www.parkinson.org); or the charity of your choice.