Michelle Maddox has an abundance of cherished memories about her great uncle, Jim Maddox, but her favorites involve their family holiday visits.
Maddox’s great niece said he loved to serve fruit juices and sodas in his basement wet bar. The family enjoyed the basement’s big screen TV and he always had five dollars on hand for the kids.
Maddox was the longest serving elected official in the city’s history — retiring in 2009 after serving on the city council for 32 years. He was remembered Wednesday as he lie in state inside of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel — where Benjamin E. Mays wedded Maddox and his wife, Alice — at Morehouse College.
“I just remember him buying me everything that I wanted,” Michelle Maddox said. She fondly reflected on the time Maddox took his family to the 1996 Olympics, where she watched the gymnastics competition and had her name immortalized on one of the more than 400,000 bricks sold during the original brick-adoption campaign to help support the ‘96 Games and construction of Centennial Olympic Park.
Affectionately known as the “Dean” of the Atlanta City Council, Jim Maddox died at age 88 last Wednesday.
The veteran council member held the southwest Atlanta seat during the tenure of four different Atlanta mayors dating back to Maynard Jackson’s first term in the 1970s.
“It was just a blessing that he was able to serve as long as he did,” Michelle Maddox said at the chapel. “He wanted to serve as long as he could have.”
Michelle Maddox said her great uncle inspired the whole family to devote their lives to public service. She served in the Navy while her brother, father, and grandfather served in the Army.
Credit: Michael Pugh
Credit: Michael Pugh
She also remembered Maddox as a devoted husband of 67 years. She expressed gratitude as she said Maddox was “in his right mind” before his death, and that he still remembered his relatives.
“I saw him probably two days beforehand. I said my name, he gave me a hug, he was really in good spirits,” she said. “I just think his body was tired. He was ready to go home to his two sisters and three brothers and be with them because he is the last of that generation.”
Around noon, a trio of visitors formed a circle around Maddox’s open coffin positioned in front of the chapel’s stage. One of the women held a smartphone in front of Maddox in order for Maddox’s youngest daughter, Sonya, to view via FaceTime. The group then softly prayed over Maddox’s coffin for several minutes.
One of those women was Patricia Walker, a Ben Hill community organizer, who knew Maddox for over three decades. Walker recalled how she once rode a horse during a community parade when Maddox, the parade’s grand marshal, leapt out of his car to catch her as the horse tried to knock her off its back.
“I just cried just then thinking about it,” Walker said. “He was like a daddy and a granddaddy to everybody.”
Sonya Maddox-Upchurch said she was unable to visit her father in person, but she spent an hour over FaceTime reflecting over the abundance of stories about him as a hero working three to four jobs in support of his family.
“He was so busy working. He worked in Atlanta area technical school, he taught income tax preparation, he worked at Lockheed Martin, he was a contract administrator,” Maddox-Upchurch said. “They trusted him to do a lot of international contracts.”
One of Maddox’s sons, James, tearfully walked away from the service as a resident approached him and briefly told him how Maddox made a change in his life.
“I didn’t know he was loved this much,” James Maddox said. “He was a great father. He led by example instead of force. He wasn’t a bully. He just loved people, and that’s what made him successful as a leader and definitely as a father.”
Maddox’s other daughter, Shelia, called Maddox a family man who always made time to listen to them and to put their needs first.
“An extension of that was his commitment to his District 11 family and the citizens of Atlanta. He was a visionary who did all he could to elevate Atlanta’s profile on the global stage and create economic development opportunities here,” she said.
The Maddox family held another visitation from 5-7 p.m. at Murray Brothers Funeral Home on Wednesday. His funeral services are scheduled for Thursday, at 11 a.m. at West Hunter Street Baptist Church, 1040 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard, SW.
In lieu of flowers, the Maddox family has asked the community to make contributions and donations in memory of Maddox to the Andrew and Walter Young Family YMCA, Quality Living Services, Inc., and Morehouse College. For more information, visit the websites for the Walter Young Family YMCA and Morehouse College.
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