For Joel Brown, the 1979 Easter Flood is likely a major reason his diploma says “Jackson Academy,” rather than another school.
The flood hit April of that year, weeks before classes were to let out for summer.
Approximately five and half feet of water inundated the campus, nearly destroying it.
But out of tragedy came triumph. Brought closer together by the disaster, the ninth-grade class petitioned the board of trustees to start a high school.
“I think at that point, we realized JA needed to plan for the future,” he said. “We had been talking about a high school, but the flood had a huge impact on the decision-makers at the top.”
Fast forward three years, and Brown was one of 22 seniors to graduate as part of JA’s first graduating class.
Joel remembers the flood like it was yesterday. Students and faculty members came together early on, in hopes of protecting the campus.
After the deluge, he remembers traversing the campus by canoe, helping to salvage books and other items so classes could continue.
“We were already prepared for it thanks to Mr. Higgins’ raft trips,” he said.
The trips, which were started by professor Ray Higgins, are an annual tradition for JA seventh-graders, and are known to help students build life skills and self-confidence.
The school began meeting at local churches, while James and Mary Grace Brown, Joel’s parents, opened up their home for use by the school administration.
“We lived two blocks up from Ridgewood, on Winchester. We didn’t flood,” he said.
Several groups opened their doors, including Christ United Methodist Church, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Riverwood Bible Church, Beth Israel Congregation, Briarwood Presbyterian Church and Riverside Independent Methodist Church, according to a book on the school’s history.
However, students returned to JA sooner than expected, thanks to a threat from the IRS to revoke those church’s tax-exempt status.
Students, parents and teachers quickly got JA up and running again, spending a weekend cleaning and gutting buildings, and sanitizing everything with Clorox.
“It seems like it was seamless almost,” said Joel. “We continued having classes so we could have the ninth-grade graduation.”
After high school, Joel attended Mississippi State University for one year, before joining Up with People, a goodwill ambassador group that travels across the globe.
“We traveled all over the world putting on these shows,” he said. “JA prepared me for that.”
As part of the group, Joel’s troupe traveled to 14 or 15 states, and eight or nine countries, mostly in Europe.
Afterward, he returned to home, earned his business administration degree from Millsaps College and joined Brown’s Fine Arts and Framing, the family business.
“My mom started the gallery in 1965. It’s grown from there,” he said. “My mom and my sister run the gallery. I stepped back in 2017.”
He’s remained active as a JA alum, helping organize class reunions and other alumni events.
“It’s because I stayed here and I was friends with everybody,” he said. “It’s just my nature – to get people together.”
Kathy Sheffield landed at JA her junior year, by default.
The then high school junior had planned to be on the flag line at Callaway, but when her parents built a home in the Murrah attendance zone, she followed her brother to JA.
“My brother wanted to play football, but at his size, he wouldn’t be able to (at Murrah),” she said. “Good things were being said about JA at the time, that it was blazing a trail in education, so my brother and I both transferred.
“I was a junior, he was a sophomore.”
At the time, Kathy didn’t know she would be a part of JA’s first graduating class.
She was just nervous about changing schools.
And it wasn’t just schools she was changing; it was a way of life.
At Callaway, Kathy was part of a class of 86 sophomores. The junior class at JA had just 22 students and could barely dress out a football team. Kathy also doesn’t remember if there was a school band, dance team or Beta Club.
Then, of course, there’s the prospects of having to make new friends.
“When you got to a school that has 20 students, you’re either in or out,” she said. “It seemed like everyone was in. They were very welcoming.
“All of my memories are really positive from the beginning.”
Kathy went on to Vanderbilt University, where she graduated from the medical school in 1986. She served 12 years as school nurse at Canton Academy before joining JA as a staff member in 2012.
Again, it was her brother Ronnie Cockayne, who brought her back to Raider Country.
“He had kids there at the time and talked me into it,” she said.
Today, Kathy serves as the nurse for the whole school, as well as preschool and lower school counselor.
Two years ago, she completed her master’s in school counseling through the University of West Alabama.
“We were going through the accreditation process and were cited for not having a lower school counselor,” she said. “The headmaster at the time said it was something I’d be good at, so I looked into doing an online program.
“I was able to do my practice time with kids at JA, so it made it easy.”
As for her class’ legacy, Kathy is reminded of it every day.
She sees it in the number of students in this year’s graduating class, in growth of class offerings and in the construction and opening of the 800-seat JA Performing Arts Center.
She also sees it in her own family. All three of Kathy’s siblings – Ronnie, Cheryl Cockayne Armstrong and Jenean Cockayne Rhodes – graduated JA, as did Ronnie’s children. And Kathy’s daughter, Anna Claire, is currently a freshman at the Ridgewood Road school.
On top of that, approximately 100 students are expected to graduate this year. Not bad for a school that 30 years ago didn’t offer a flag line.
Said Kathy, “We really did set a standard.”
Over the years, Jackson Academy has spent millions of dollars on its athletic programs, ensuring student-athletes have the best equipment and training facilities possible.
Those efforts, in turn, have helped JA bring home multiple titles in numerous sports.
Just 30 years ago, though, the school could barely dress out a football team, much less, buy equipment.
“We had a good coach, good administrators and folks that really helped us, but we didn’t have a lot of money,” said Chuck Smith, a starting offensive lineman on the Raiders’ 1980 and 1981 squads.
“My dad, being in the body shop business, welded us a squat rack. We had a homemade squat rack for years, because we didn’t have the funds to purchase one.”
Chuck, a member of JA’s first graduating class, was one of 22 students who returned to the school his junior year.
As freshmen, he was spokesman for the class that petitioned JA’s board of trustees to start a high school.
“We fought really hard. We had a meeting with the board, they took it into consideration, but said it was just too much to do at that time,” Chuck said. “They had walls to put up, floors to put down.
“It just wasn’t going to happen that year.”
The school was still reeling from the effects of the 1979 Easter Flood, which inundated the Ridgewood Road campus.
The board said they would allow Smith’s class to return as juniors, if enough members of the class would commit to doing so. “Not all of us came back, but most of us did and we brought a few people from other schools,” he said.
Chuck attended St. Andrew’s Episcopal School his sophomore year, and had friends who attended Woodland Hills, Callaway and elsewhere.
He said allowing the junior class played a major role in boosting JA’s fledgling high school sports program.
“It was really good that we came back, or we wouldn’t have had enough players for a baseball team or a football team,” he said. “We might have had enough for basketball, so the fact that we were allowed to come back helped.”
JA fielded its first high school football team Chuck’s junior year. That year, 17 players dressed out.
“We only went 4-5,” he said.
The following year, JA fielded 23 players, and posted a 10-0 record before losing in the first round of the playoffs.
The Raiders fell in the postseason because of injuries and a lack of depth. “By the end of the year, both our running backs had broken either a leg or an arm,” Chuck recalled. “We just didn’t have enough bodies to round out the year.”
Chuck went on to Ole Miss, where he graduated in 1986.
“My dad gave me two options – go to any college in America and go as long as you want, but if you go to Ole Miss, I’ll pay for it and pay for four years,” he said. For the lifelong Rebel, the choice was easy.
After college, Chuck bought out his father’s half of Smith Brothers, a downtown Jackson body shop. “We still have the same phone number we did in 1946,” he said.
And like his father, being in the body shop business has allowed Chuck to help students at JA.
Of course, some students would have rather Chuck hadn’t stepped in on one project.
“Back when we were little, JA had the “black bench.” If you got in trouble, which I did fairly often, you would go sit on the black bench in front of Ms. Hulsey.”
Mrs. Marie Hulsey was elementary school secretary.
“It started looking bad about eight to 10 years ago. Nancy Alford brought it in and asked if I minded painting it,” he said. “We put automotive paint on it and it looks good as new.”
Pictured above: Chuck Smith, Kathy Cockayne, Joel Brown
