Funeral services for Paul Donald Townsend, of Wesson, are Sunday, July 9, 2017, at 4 p.m. at Mt. Zion Baptist Church with burial at the church cemetery. Riverwood Family Funeral Service in Brookhaven is in charge of arrangements.

Visitation will be Sunday, July 9, 2017, from 2 p.m. until time of service at the church.

Mr. Townsend, 84, died July 6, 2017. He was born March 22, 1933, to Lewis Brown Townsend and Essie O’Bannon Townsend. He graduated from Lena High School and immediately joined the Navy in 1952 during the Korean War. He later started his own company, Townsend & Wallace Heating and Air, in 1978 in Crystal Springs. He was an active member of First Baptist Church in Crystal Springs until he and his wife, Myrna, moved to Wesson in 2013, where he joined Mt. Zion Baptist Church. He and Myrna enjoyed traveling, going to Buckhorn Hunting Club, to NASCAR races, Navy reunions and his grandchildren’s ball games. He was a big talker and never forgot a story or a joke, sometimes telling them over and over to his friends’ dismay. He never met a stranger and if he did, you can be he knew some of their “people.”

Preceding him in death were his parents; four brothers, Tom Townsend, Ed Townsend, Lewis Townsend and James Townsend; and five sisters, Virginia Messer, Eugenia Windham, Myra Jean Scott, Josephine Townsend and Helen Jane Ware.

Survivors are his wife of more than 59 years, Myrna K. Townsend; sons, Don Townsend and wife Liz, David Townsend and wife Kim; daughter, Susan T. Easterling and husband Irving; brotehr, Wayne Townsend and wife Donia; seven grandchildren, Shane Easterling, Seth Easterling, Summer Burns, Sara Allen, Emily Townsend, Jordan Townsend and Dallas Townsend; six great-grandchildren, Riley and Casen Easterling, Sawyer and Shawn Easterling, Braxton Lane Townsend and Aubrey Kate Alen; and many friends, including high school friends, Navy buddies, Queen’s Lane neighbors, deer camp friends, church friends and others he met along the way.

Memorials can be made to Mt. Zion Baptist Church’s building fund or to the Alzheimer’s Foundation.

To express your thoughts to the family, visit riverwoodfamily.com and click on his name to leave a comment.