Beloved grocery store owner Jerry Lee passes away. ‘He was one in a million.’

Jerry Lee, a longtime Jackson County community member and owner of Coast grocery stores that bear his name, passed away at home on Monday. He was 88.

“He was one in a million,” said Ronda Deforrest, who has worked for Jerry Lee’s corporation for over four decades.

Hired at 16, Deforrest has been with the company for 42 years and currently works as the human resources and office manager.

“He was just a genuine person who was kind to everyone,” Deforest said of Lee. “He didn’t treat you like an employee — he treated you like a member of the family.”

Lee was born on June 28, 1933, in Foxworth, Mississippi. When he turned 18, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps for three years before returning home to help his father, Robert Wayne Lee, who was working in the meat industry and had lost an arm, according to his obituary.

Jerry Lee would fall in love and marry his wife, Polly Lee, in 1955 and would later move to the Coast.

Together, the Lees would open Jerry Lee’s first grocery store in 1958, which has been a staple in the community ever since. Deforest said Lee was the largest independent employer in Jackson County for a time, with stores in Pascagoula and Gautier.

“He did it all and he would never ask you to do anything he wouldn’t do himself,” she said. “When hurricanes would come, he would go out to the parking lot and bring in buggies and bag groceries. He was an all-around good guy.”

Lee would lead his business through numerous industry changes and business cycles. He started by adding up bills by hand on grocery bags, to adopting computers and mobile payment options.

“Most everything he did in business was a good decision and he always wanted to do the right thing,” said Mark Lee, Jerry Lee’s son who now runs the family business with his sister.

Mark remembers his father as a people person who once told him one the most fulfilling parts about owning his own business was working with young people and teaching them work ethics and getting to know his customers.

“He loved his customers, and he loved his employees,” Mark said.

With his wife, Jerry Lee raised his four children: Gary Lee, Mark Lee, Susan Lee Harris and Thea Michelle Lee. Together they traveled, skied, played tennis and golfed. He is survived by a brother, two sisters and eleven grandchildren.

In his later years, Jerry Lee relinquished leadership of the family business to his children in so he could spend more time with his family and enjoy the fruits of his labor.

“He adored his grandkids and wouldn’t mind getting on them when he needed to,” Mark said. “They just loved his personality and his way of relating to them.”

A visitation will be held Thursday, Feb. 24, from noon until 3:00 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Pascagoula. Funeral services will follow with entombment at Jackson County Memorial Park.

For those that wish, in lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to be made to First Baptist Church in Pascagoula.

This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 1:16 PM.