Retired Alabama Baptist pastor J. Lamar Jackson died Feb. 22 at age 86.
“He was a leader of leaders,” said Jackson’s friend, Earl Potts, who served as executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC) 1984–1990. Potts said Jackson’s integrity, reliability and resourcefulness surfaced in his handling of leadership and friendships.
During Jackson’s ministry, he was a member of the executive committee of the ABSC and other convention committees. He was also on the committee that led to the founding of Mobile College, later renamed the University of Mobile.
Jackson served several years as a trustee of Samford University (SU). He was a longtime trustee of the board of Birmingham Baptist Hospitals, which grew to become Baptist Health System.
Jackson’s longest pastorate was Southside Baptist Church, Birmingham, where he was pastor from 1957 until 1980, when he retired. He was pastor of Ensley Baptist Church, Ensley, 1948–1957. He also served the Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) as moderator and as president of the BBA ministers conference. During the 1940s, he served a church in Indiana and later in North Carolina.
During much of the time Jackson was pastor of Southside, Potts was pastor of McElwain Baptist Church, Birmingham. “In my opinion he was one of the most gifted preachers and pastors that we have had in Alabama in a long time,” Potts said.
Others who knew Jackson agree.
“He was always friendly and upbeat with a very positive attitude and just willing to help anybody, and as a young pastor (at Lakeside Baptist Church, Birmingham) I was deeply appreciative of that,” said L. Earl Tew, pastor of First Baptist Church, Hoover. “He became a mentor or model for me and many others.”
Jackson’s spiritual leadership continued in retirement as a member of Evergreen Baptist Church, Evergreen, according to Pastor Ken May. “I considered him a very loyal churchman, a dear friend and a strong encourager to me as a pastor — those are the things that stand out to me,” he said. “He loved [Evergreen] church and the church at large. I could certainly tell that from his life and my conversations with him.”
Jackson told The Alabama Baptist during an October 2002 interview that he considered the entire state of Alabama to be his home, noting that he grew up in Mobile and Tuscaloosa after being born in Birmingham.
Jackson said he accepted the call to preach during his senior year of college at the University of Alabama.
“My senior year I found myself under conviction, knowing that I needed to decide what to do with my life,” he said. “I decided to go to Southern Seminary in Louisville and … I accepted that the Lord wanted me to be a pastor.”
Jackson is survived by his second wife, Carolyn Boatner Cumbie Jackson.
He is also survived by four children and eight grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 40 years, Hermione Dannelly Jackson.
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