March 28, 2024

Community News

U.S. Army Veteran Joe Nathan Wright-Brother, Father, Friend Mourned in Columbus, Georgia
March 4, 2022

COLUMBUS, Ga. - March 4, 2022 - PRLog -- Posted Courtesy of Jackie Wright, Wright Enterprises-Dallas~San Francisco~~~

The Wright Family welcomes you to join the obsequies administered by Sconiers Funeral Home of Columbus, Georgia as they lay Joe Nathan Wright to rest. The ceremony, officiated by Rev. Maurice Edwards, will be held 12 noon, Thursday, March 10, 2022 at Christ Community Church, 4078 Milgen Road, Columbus. Georgia 31907.  Burial with his wife Brenda Tibbs Wright will follow at 2:00 pm. at Fort Mitchell National Cemetery, 553 AL-165, Fort Mitchell, AL 36856. Please observe COVID-19 protocols with masking and social distancing.

He was an Executive Producer for the film, "Love Separated in Life...Love Reunited in Honor," the story of his Vietnam War Hero father being reburied in Arlington National Cemetery after languishing 50 years in a segregated cemetery. 

 
In lieu of flowers, the Wright Family welcomes your contributions to the Joe Wright Legacy Fund: https://linktr.ee/joewrightlegacy.  Although beautiful, flowers are fleeting and short-lived.  This opportunity to give tribute to Joe is for an investment in the legacy of Joe Nathan Wright for his children Damon, Candis & Chad and for his grandchildren. Your investment in the Joe Wright Legacy Fund expands beyond the fleeting days of beautiful flowers and has a more lasting legacy.

The Wright Family thanks everyone for all of their expressions of love and condolences.

God bless and keep you all for your kindness and compassion.
"What a Beautiful Soul"

JOE NATHAN WRIGHT

AUGUST 15, 1955-FEBRUARY 23, 2022

"What a beautiful Soul", said Baby Sister, Phyllis.

"I did not know my last visit with Joe would be my last visit", said Baby Brother, Stanley.

"Joe, my first sibling, was a shining light and he is shining even more brilliantly in the presence of his Creator, Jesus Christ",  said Big Sister, Jackie.

Joe Nathan Wright (August 15, 1955-February 23, 2022) was born at Martin Army Hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia into the military family of Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr., his father (December 7, 1931-March 9, 1964) and Ouida Fay McClendon Wright, his mother (January 10, 1935-March 9. 1970).  Joe passed away suddenly from cardiac arrest in Grand Prairie, Texas leaving a multitude of grieving and stunned family members and friends.

Joe lived on military bases with his family in Wildflecken, Germany; Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico; and Fort Knox, Kentucky before his mother settled the family near Fort Benning,  in cities of Phenix City, Alabama and Columbus, Georgia after his father's death March 9, 1964 in a helicopter crash in Vietnam while serving as an honor guard for Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.  As a result of his formative years as a "military brat", "Joe Nathan" as his mother called him, had a great love for travel and meeting people.  Most describe him as outgoing and very gregarious and someone who never met a stranger.   If he did meet a stranger, his disarming smile made most an instant friend forever.


 
Joe was a 1974 graduate of Baker High School, where he met the love of his life Brenda Michelle Tibbs, who became his wife and mother of his three children Damon, Candis and Chad. His high school days were filled with the joy of discovery where he played excellently on the Baker High football team until he suffered an injury and was on the basketball team for a while. He received his AA degree in Business Administration at Columbus Technical School that is now Columbus Technical College. Later, Joe also studied marketing at Los Positas College in Dublin, CA.
The arts were also a part of his delight in life.  As an original member of the "Spices of Love" with Marion Bivens, Granvel (Bunny) Hopkins, and Henry Owens,  "Doc Sweet" or "Joe Cool"  as he was called by his many high school friends made it into the WOKS Radio Talent Show.  But Spices of Love making it into the finals was disqualified when several girls spontaneously jumped on the stage and started hugging and kissing the group. WOKS officials thought "Spices of Love" had staged the whole thing with their groupies. As a historical note, brought together by Kenneth Smigelow, the Spices of Love evolved into the final group with Marion Bivions, Spurgeon Green, Granvel Hopkins, Michael Rhymes and Henry Owens.

Music was always a part of Joe's "joie de vivre."  He had an inspirational ministry of putting together Christian music of Kurt Carr, The Canton Spirituals, Hezekiah Walker, John P. Kee, Kirk Franklin, and so many others.  Many have testified to the fact that those Holy Spirit curated songs through Joe, were received at a low point in their lives;  yet the weight of the world was lifted when they listened to Joe's playlist that was always given at the right moment.  Joe Wright always blessed others by just being "Joe." There was always a celebration wherever he would go.  The world knows Mardi Gras, but Joe's family and friends knew "Joedigras"as his gmail account indicated. He always celebrated the joy of living every day in simple ways. 


Joe  was an unpublished writer who loved a good story.  Mississippi born and bred comedian "Jerry Clower" was one of his favorites. He'd imitate Clower's distinctive holler and stories of "New- Gene" and "Clovis Ledbetter"  from time to time to entertain at family occasions and even at a few San Francisco Bay Area clubs.  Joe had such an attractive spirit affirmed by his landing a Kellogg's commercial while just walking down the street on the Embarcadero in

San Francisco.  His positive spirit can be seen in the award-winning short documentary film "Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor" for which he was an executive producer.  He declared the March 10, 2014  ceremony and reburial of his Vietnam hero father and faithful mother at Arlington National Cemetery  was "not a sad occasion but a celebration" when the couple was reunited after 50 years.

Joe was a "man's man" and a "soldier's soldier", a leader of men and an encourager.  He quickly moved up to the rank of Sergeant, Instructor and Squad Leader in the U.S. Army becoming an award-winning NCO Academy Instructor for the 197th Division.  Moving to the Bay Area after seven years of honorable service in the U.S. Army, Joe with his dear wife Brenda, a longtime Caltrans/Bay Bridge employee, raised their children Damon, Candis and Chad in the City of San Leandro, near his brother Stanley and sister-in-law Viola Barnes Wright, who lived in Oakland, California with their children born in California, Stanley D'rell and Devon.  The Wright Family increased with sister Phyllis and Woodrow Cameron, who became her husband moved to the Bay Area after her graduation from Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, GA.  Ultimately in 1990 sister Jackie joined the Wright Family when her daughter Tiffanie chose to attend Baylor University in Texas instead of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia where they were living.  Joe and Stanley, with their wives carried on the spirit of hospitality of their parents.  With their wives, life was always a party gathering with friends with the lighting of a barbecue grill special occasion or not.

Joe worked in the San Francisco Bay Area in various sales and driving positions ultimately working at MV Transportation as a bus driver picking up the elderly and people with disabilities.  It was a position he enjoyed and many times spoke of the inspirational conversations he would have both giving inspiration and receiving inspiration.  A driver at MV Transportation is the last position he held before leaving the Bay Area with his wife in 2005 to care for his elderly U.S. Army veteran father-in-law Bruce Tibbs, who had been widowed after the death of his deeply loved wife Doris, many years before.

The testimony of Joe's servant leader's heart is seen in his dedication to family.  With the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, the lesson of dedication and the value of family were learned in his overcoming the struggles of life and the self-destruction of running after the crowd in the streets in the Bay Area.  Not long after returning to Columbus, Joe served Brenda who became ill and also his father-in-law while Joe held down a job as a courier delivering radioactive medicine to hospitals for Cardinal Health. He also worked with TransCor.  His dedication was magnified as Joe continued to daily care for his father-in-law after the death of Brenda, (July 23, 1956-November 18, 2018).

After his return to Columbus and amid the years of care for Brenda and her father, Joe, who also had a street ministry, "The Street Disciples," worked with his brother Stanley and friends to create the "Street Disciples Home Boys Reunion" that became the "Home Boys and Home Girls Reunion" at the old Cedar Hills Recreation Center.  The annual gathering that grew to draw generations of the young and old was in the Cedar Hill subdivision where the Wright Family home of Tennessee marble rock was built by Ed Stovall, one of the very rare Black contractors in the 1960's.  In alignment with Joe's mother "Fay's" desire always for their home to be a place of refuge for family and friends, The Wright home of 1103 Bedford Avenue is now an elder care facility created by the Wright's cousins, Katie Morris and Robert Morris Sr., now deceased.

As a minister, one of Joe's first ceremonial honors was to conduct the wedding of his niece Tiana Tibbs to Marcus Culley.  He further enjoyed giving his testimony at Christ Community Church at their "Celebrate Recovery" ministry meetings to encourage others to know that through Jesus Christ total recovery can be achieved and maintained.

Joe never met a stranger and he lived out his mother's motto "If I can't help you, I won't hurt you."

It is with great grief mixed with the overcoming hope of Christ that the Wright Family and Joe's many friends prepare to lay him to rest.  Even Jesus cried with great grief when he stood before the tomb of Lazarus knowing that He Himself, the Creator was about to raise his friend Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus has walked the path we walk and has felt our pains and infirmities.  Joe knew this and even prophesied Romans 8 (Therefore,  there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…neither death…nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord) with a bracelet he had on his right arm as he lay prostrate as if fallen before the throne of Jesus when his body was discovered.  So, cry as Jesus cried for Lazarus, but know the best is yet to come.

Don't let grief burden you down because if you could see Joe now, you'd see him in the brightness of God walking the streets of gold hand in hand with Brenda, where he hears the tumults of "Hey Joe" like he was accustomed to hearing when he entered a room on earth where "Hey Joe," "Hey Joe," "Hey Joe" would ring all over from friends happy to see him.

Joe Wright's life is greatly mourned by family: Loving Children: Eldest son, Damon Chase Wright; Daughter, Candis Tiana Wright (Devon Alli); Youngest son, Chad Nathan Wright (Tina). Grandchildren: Jacobi Barrett; Ava Noel Wright; Chad Nathan Wright Jr. (CJ) and Giselle Wright; Sister, Jackie Wright; Brother, Stanley Wright (Viola), and Sister, Phyllis Cameron (Woodrow); Brothers in Law: Bruce Tibbs Jr. (Sandy) and Brian Tibbs (Nell). Nieces: Tiffanie Chiles Mitchell (First Babysitter for Damon, Candis and Chad) (Carlos); Aaliyah Wright; Jessica Cameron; Calah Mitchell; Toi Tibbs; Tiana Tibbs Culley (Marcus); Amber Tibbs Turner (Jerry); Briandy Tibbs; Nephews: Stanley D'Rell Wright Jr.(Jade Harris); Khari Harris Wright; Devin Chase Wright; Carlos Mitchell (Tiffanie); Carter Mitchell: Cole Mitchell, Todd Tibbs, Brian Tibbs, Jr., Marcus Culley (Tiana), and  Jerry Turner (Amber).

The Wright Family welcomes you to join the obsequies as they lay Joe Nathan Wright to rest.  The ceremony will be held 12 noon, Thursday, March 10, 2022 at Christ Community Church, 4078 Milgen Road, Columbus. Georgia 31907.   Burial with his wife Brenda Tibbs Wright will follow at 2:00 pm. at Fort Mitchell National Cemetery, 553 AL-165, Fort Mitchell, AL 36856.  Please observe COVID-19 protocols with masking and social distancing.

In lieu of flowers, the Wright Family welcomes your contributions to the Joe Wright Legacy Fund: https://linktr.ee/joewrightlegacy.  Although beautiful, flowers are fleeting and short-lived.  This opportunity to give tribute to Joe is for an investment in the legacy of Joe Nathan Wright for his children Damon, Candis & Chad and for his grandchildren. Your investment in the Joe Wright Legacy Fund expands beyond the fleeting days of beautiful flowers and has a more lasting legacy.                         
The Wright Family greatly thanks the Grand Prairie EMT; Sgt. David Griesinger of the Grand Prairie Police Department; Dr. Stephen Lenfest and  Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences/Dallas County Office of Medical Examiner staff for the kindness and professionalism shown as first responders on February 23, 2022, the day of Joe N. Wright's death by cardiac arrestThe Wright Family thanks everyone for all of their expressions of love and condolences.

God bless and keep you all for your kindness and compassion.

I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.#
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!  Job 19:25-27  ###
Proclamation
https://www.prlog.org/12909652-veteran-joe-wright-father-...

Confirmation of Eternal Life Dedicated to Joe N. Wright: https://youtu.be/liqcWXBLwsk
Today

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