In a recent conversation with Kim Jackson about her father, the late Marvin Jackson, she kept repeating two words – “highly respected.”
In 2020 the City of Magee honored him by renaming the park in the Goodwater community the Marvin Jackson Park. This Saturday, August 5, the Magee Consolidated – McLaurin Attendance Center Historical Society will host a celebration in recognition of that honor from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Jackson was a fixture in Magee, the Goodwater community, McCarty Farms and the baseball fields of the former Washington Park. Kim explained, “He loved baseball; he absolutely loved baseball! Actually, at Sanatorium where Boswell is they had a baseball team and he played there and he loved it.” And he loved children too.
Like his employer, J. F. McCarty, Jackson was all about community. Together with some co-workers they got the city to build the park in the early 1970’s. According to Kim, her father and Mr. Cephus Curry, a Magee high school teacher, were instrumental in starting a baseball team, along with other community members.
She remembers her dad driving around in his blue Chevy truck rounding up the teenage boys on the team for practice or tournaments, either at their own field or opponents’ fields like Mary Grove and Hawpond. “We’d all be on the back of the truck going to the practices and games. The boys respected him; the parents respected him. Even with them on the back of the truck, they wouldn’t worry about that.”
According to Historical Society member Dr. Anika Floyd of Co-Lin’s Simpson County Center, the plan for Saturday’s event is to bring the community together to celebrate the renaming of the park with a time of fellowship, fun and food. The society is trying to build up the membership as well as obtain items from those who attended the school. She said they have invited former classes to join the event and decorate tents similar to a class reunion.
Kim said she is excited about the upcoming celebration. “It’s a great honor. We spent a lot of time at the park.”
