Birdel F. Jackson, Jr.

Birdel F. Jackson, Jr. was born September 23, 1924. In 1929 Birdel Jr. attended La Rose Elementary Thru 8th grade and then to Booker T. Washington High School where he graduated in June 1942.In September, 1942 he enrolled at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, as an agriculture major. Birdel Jr. enrolled in a welding course to work in the shipyards during WWII. He went west holding several jobs before entering the Coast Guard. Birdel Jr. and 4 other black sailors were assigned to the icebreaker Storis based in Boston. The ship patrolled the Artic escorting shipping to Greenland and Iceland, searching for submarines and supplying bases in the area until the end of WWII. He married Leslie Ann Brown of Maplewood NJ in 1944. His son Birdel III Donnie was born on May 21, 1945 and a daughter Carol AnnKAKI in 1947. In 1948-49 the next year the family lived in Ames Iowa where Birdel Jr. resumed his agricultural studies at Iowa State College. In 1955, Birdel Jr. decided he’d leave farming and in 1959 moved north. In 1960, he joined Eastern Airlines and built a home for his family in Westbury Long Island where he worked till he retired in 1986. Empty nesters, the couple moved to Lawrenceville GA in 1987. Birdel & Ann continued to travel while being close to their children and their families. Leslie Ann battled dementia from 2006 until October 2011 when she succumbed to the effects of the disease. Birdel Jr. spent his last years driving his pickup truck to McDonalds shopping, enjoying his extensive record collection, visiting his granddaughters Cece and Yvonne and great grand kids, Ava and Davis Dragon.

Birdel F. Jackson Jr. passed away peacefully on October 20, 2016, in his home in Lawrenceville GA. As he leaves to join his wife Leslie Ann, he leaves his daughter Carol Ann, son Birdel III Edith, granddaughters, Cecilia Ann and Yvonne Randall Dragon and 2 great grandchildren Ava and Davis Dragon to fondly remember him.