Ward D. Warren

He is preceded in death by his parents, Carl and Jewel Warren. Like his parents, Ward D was a lifelong resident of the Hurricane Community in Pontotoc County, save a long month in the early 1950s when he chased work to Illinois. He worked just long enough to collect a check sufficient to pay his way back home. The prospect of farming Duncan Creek Bottom was too enticing, notwithstanding the long hours, high risk, and low pay that were destined to come. He and his family would farm the land in that bottom for the next 32 years. During those years, Ward worked in the furniture business, including a long stint at Basic Wood in Pontotoc, where he learned the trade and made lifelong friends.

Ward D and his beloved wife of 63 years, Jimmie Graham Warren, opened J&W Furniture Frames, Inc. in the fall of 1983. Working in a creosote pole barn, they began building a company the old fashioned way - working harder and longer than anyone else, providing excellent customer service, and growing a slow, deliberate pace. Their efforts paid off and were sustained. J&W continues to operate 33 years later. So does the farming, by the way. He pulled double-duty for a long time before he released the farming operation to someone else, but those 200-acres are covered in soy beans today.

Ward's legacy of hard work and devotion to family is shown in the faces of his survivors, all of whom know how to get up early, stay up late, and get after it in between: wife, Jimmie Graham Warren; daughter, Rita (Howard) Hill; son, Jeff (Ruthie) Warren; two grandsons, Lee (Jessica) and Benjamin (Brittany) Hill; five great-grandchildren, and a sister Carolyn Carnes.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, June 25th at Hurricane Baptist Church from 5:00pm-9:00pm. A celebration of Ward D's life will be held at the church, on Sunday, June 26th at 2:00pm, with internment to follow a Sand Springs Cemetery.

Friends and family to serve as pallbearers will be Howard Carnes, Phil Warren, Chris Russell, Phil Robbins, Jerry Robbins and Garry Graham.

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Romans 15:13.