Jean Wade Polk

Everette Jean Wade Polk, 97, of Batesville, MS, departed this life on January 4, 2025. Jean was born in Mt. Olive, MS, on December 12, 1927, the cherished only child of Everett Seaborn and Olive Byrd Wade. Her childhood days with her good parents were simple and happy in the small Mississippi town. One classmate in Jean’s primary school was William Harold Polk, and even during Depression days the young Will often found candy to leave in Jean’s desk. His attention to Jean in those early years was the beginning of a lasting courtship. The two would marry in 1948 and spend sixty-seven years together before his death in 2016. Their marriage was filled with love, laughter, and blessings as they brought up three daughters. Jean taught English in the eighth grade in Batesville. Will worked tirelessly in his accounting firm as Jean devotedly “kept the home fires burning” through more than fifty tax seasons.

The Lord was her Shepherd and Jean diligently studied His Word. At Mississippi College her major was English, but she also took many Bible courses there. In Batesville she taught a Sunday School Class and taught Bible at the Junior High School. Teaching was her ministry, and she remembered her students with fondness long after they passed through her classroom. Family members were hers to teach as well, and grammatical errors were quickly addressed in the Polk household. A great love of poetry and of travel influenced her life. She read the great poets and could recall the lines of every poem or Scripture verse she ever memorized. She happily traveled whenever she had the opportunity. On seeing a jet in the sky, she sometimes could be heard wishing aloud that she were on it.

For many years after residing in Batesville, Jean still called her beloved birthplace of Mt. Olive “home.” Only after losing her parents, welcoming nine grandchildren, and purchasing cemetery plots in Batesville did she finally declare Batesville her family home. Jean’s long life was showered with God’s mercy and grace. A sweet peaceful countenance revealed her inner contentment, for Jean was acquainted with the Author and Finisher of her story. At the time appointed for her a loving Father closed her eyes, and she was taken to her eternal “home” in the heavens.

Jean is survived by: three daughters - Brooke (the late Will) Johnson, Gwen (Mickey) Aldridge, and Beth (Tripp) Thomas; nine adored grandchildren - Emily (Chris) Hahn, Lent Ervin (Melanie) Thomas, Don Woods, William (Rebecca) Thomas, Wade (Whitney) Aldridge, Holly (Tice) Young, Jeremy (Megan) Aldridge, Lindsay (Scott) Wynne and Anna Aldridge; 23 great-grandchildren; and three sisters-in-law - Edith Polk, Dixie Duckworth, and Mary Nell Polk. Her two long-term caregivers, Gwen Fondren and Paula Thompson, became as family. Jean was preceded in death by her husband William.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 7, at First Baptist Church in Batesville, MS, with friends received from 9:30 a.m. until service time. Interment will follow at Magnolia Cemetery. Memorial gifts may be made to Batesville First Baptist Church or to the Gideons.