Brenda Gail Jackson

Brenda Gail Ward Jackson left this Earth on July 5, 2026. She is preceded in death by her son Colin Lee Jackson and her parents Roy and Beulah Ward. She is survived by her husband, Jerry Jackson, her daughter, Minnie Jackson, her grandchildren Jest Jackson, his wife Courtnie, and their two children Rose and James, her granddaughter Piper Gail, her sister, Sherrie Morsey, and nephew, Matthew Morsey. Brenda was born in November of 1950, in Evans, Louisiana. She loved reminiscing about her early years living next door to her "Granny" Minnie and "Grandpa" Andrew's farm and loved riding on her grandpa's buckboard wagon. During her elementary school years, her family moved to Baton Rouge, where she attended school beginning at Goodwood Elementary and graduating from Baton Rouge High School in 1969. Afterward, she got her degree in fashion design from Meadows-Draughon business school in New Orleans, where she lived with some of her best friends. She designed her own line of clothing called "Old Man Winter." When she returned to Baton Rouge, she was hired by D.H. Holmes to work in the display department-decorating the store and dressing the mannequins for display. She was so talented that people would buy the outfits straight out of the window displays she created. Her co-workers, Becky and Jay, told her about a man they had worked with that they had really liked-Jerry Jackson, a man who had been attending college in California on a percussion scholarship, but had come home when he received word that his mother was sick. Not being in college resulted in him being drafted into the Vietnam War. Her colleagues felt she would really like him. They had the same interests in music and fashion, and they encouraged her to write to him. As painfully shy as she was, she did. She began to write to him daily, and when he returned home from Vietnam, he spent the first few days with his family then went to finally meet Brenda. They had fallen in love through their letters over the course of the year, and he proposed on the Cardinal Trail of the Oakley Plantation, where John James Audubon lived. Three months after his return they were married in July of 1970, and were married for 56 years. Brenda was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Her kindness, perpetual forgiveness, and even-temperament were her greatest virtues. She was a wonderful cook, decorated her home and yard beautifully and made every holiday and birthday amazing. She loved planning adventures and vacations on Dauphin Island and spending days and nights on their houseboat on Old River, and touring the Natchez Trace. She always said, "If you don't make a day special, it won't be." Her gentleness and kindness were well-known to all. She will be missed by all who knew her, and she will be forever in our hearts.