Fred C. Mann

Fred Christopher Mann, 102, died peacefully at his home, the Blake at Township, in Ridgeland, Mississippi, on December 5, 2024. Fred was the last of his generation in the family – the Greatest Generation. His grandfather Friedrich Mann arrived in the United States in 1861 with his brother Paul from Schweidnitz, Prussia, and settled in Cullman, Alabama. Two generations later, on June 1, 1922, Fred was born at home on Moulton Street in Decatur, Alabama, to Bessie Vance Cook Mann and Arthur Christopher Mann. Fred had two brothers: Louis, born in 1919, and George, born in 1924. The three boys grew up helping their father run his butcher shop and grocery store, and endured the Great Depression in an active and hardworking household that generated many life experiences and entertaining stories.

Among the most enduring stories was a harrowing one involving 11-year-old Fred driving their father’s Ford Model A, complete with a new rag top, to deliver meat to a steel mill in Decatur with his brother Louis and a friend, Frank Owen. Due to the design of the railroad tracks that serviced the steel mill, Fred did not see an approaching freight train as he crossed the tracks, and the train struck the car, demolishing it, along with the new rag top, throwing Fred from the vehicle and leaving the other two boys relatively unscathed. Initially Fred could not be located at the scene, but finally he was found face down in some cinders along the railroad bed. Fred was in a coma for days, his mother Bessie at his side, and when he finally awakened, he had lost the sight in one eye, which he never regained.

Fred joined the U.S. Army as a young man in the midst of World War II and, in light of his partial sight loss, served as a quartermaster stateside while his brother Louis taught navigation stateside in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Their brother George served in the U.S. Army infantry in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, fighting in the battles of Monte Cassino and Anzio during the brutal winter of 1943-44, participating in the amphibious landing on Anzio Beach in January 1944. George was shot by a German sniper in an artillery field preparing for the push to Rome, was awarded the Purple Heart, was honorably discharged, and returned to Decatur.

After Fred was discharged from the Army, he initially worked at various jobs, including as a hotel clerk in Decatur, Huntsville and Birmingham, Alabama. Fred was working at the Thomas Jefferson Hotel in Birmingham when he got to know Claudine Wilson during her lunch and dinner breaks from her job in the box office at the nearby Ritz Theatre. Fred and Claudine married in 1945 in Montgomery, and together they had a daughter, Linda Dianne, born in Birmingham. The family moved to Jackson in 1950, where both Fred and Claudine excelled in sales, she initially in barber and beauty supplies and later in residential real estate, and he initially in medical devices and later in pharmaceuticals. In the 1970s Fred and Claudine built their dream home on the banks of the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Brandon, Mississippi, where they lived for more than three decades. After Fred retired from pharmaceutical sales, he drove for Avis for many years, well into his 90s, often in caravans taking cars back to New Orleans from the Jackson airport.

Fred and Claudine, still an elegant couple after six decades together, celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 2015. Fred lost his beloved Claudine the next year. After Fred sold their dream house, where he and Claudine had hosted many Christmas celebrations and other events for friends and extended family, Linda and her husband Jack McDaniel opened their home in Jackson to Fred, who became their housemate. He continued to drive, often to Wal-Mart, Scrooge’s, or other beloved establishments, until he was almost 100. He spent his final years making new friends at the Blake, displaying his enduring sense of humor with frequent jokes, visiting with the staff who looked after him so kindly, enjoying butter pecan ice cream, and feeding the ducks.

Following the death of Fred’s brother Louis in an automobile accident more than 30 years ago, Fred became a surrogate grandfather to his four great nieces, Hannah, Katherine, Elizabeth and Sarah. Fred is survived by his daughter Linda, Louis and Maggie's children Karen and Chris, and the four great nieces. Linda lost her beloved Jack less than two weeks before Fred’s passing. Linda and the rest of the surviving family celebrate Fred’s life, which has earned him a well-deserved rest after a most extraordinary race.

The funeral will be at 4:00 PM on Friday, December 13 at Parkway Funeral Home Chapel, at 1161 Highland Colony Parkway in Ridgeland, MS, with the visitation at 3:00 PM.

The Mann family is grateful for loving care provided by the Blake at Township and Covenant Caregivers.

The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to a favorite charity in Fred’s memory.