Quinton Arthur Jefferson

Quinton Jefferson

Funeral services for Mr. Quinton Arthur Jefferson, Jr., of Knoxville, Tennessee. will be held at 11 AM on Saturday, October 20, 2018, at the Williams Chapel Baptist Church, 1142 Georgia Hwy 29 in East Dublin, Georgia. Reverend Dr. Eddie Hixon will deliver the eulogy. Interment will follow in the Mount Cilla Springs Cemetery.

Quinton Arthur Jefferson, Jr. was seventy-one years old when he passed away in his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, on October 7, 2018. He was among the first wave of African Americans to reap the fruits of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous quote, “A person should not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.”

He matriculated to Savannah State University, Savannah, Georgia, in September of 1964 to study electronic engineering. About two months earlier, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil rights Act into law, which made employment discrimination illegal. Subsequently, upon graduation, June 1968, Quinton was highly recruited by the Oakridge Nuclear Plant in Oakridge, Tennessee. He consented and immediately began building a career within the company, giving thirty-five years of service. As he successfully acclimated into the workplace, he purchased every red-blooded, American male’s dream - a spankin’ brand new 1972 Stingray Corvette. Life was good. He was living the American Dream.

Quinton (fondly known as Junior) was the third-born to the late Deacon Quinton and Mother Ruby Dell Thomas Jefferson. His parents were born in very similar geographical locations; his father in Danville, Georgia, and his mother in Dublin, Georgia. However, he was born in Birmingham, Alabama on December 23, 1946. Reared in Dublin, Georgia, he was an outstanding and mannerly student at Brown Grove (early education), Royal Chapel (middle school education) and B. D. Perry (high school education). Through school and life he cherished three best friends: Clark Bonner (relative), Harvey Branham of Dublin, Georgia, and Marshal Brantley (deceased). In college, he made a fourth best friend, Phil West of Conyers, Georgia.

After college, Quinton made his home in Knoxville, Tennessee and later married Paulette Brabson of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. Their love prevailed through a divorce after over twenty years of marriage. The mutual respect and trust they continued to have for each other is a testimony that what God put together no man can put asunder. Although divorced, they both have nurtured each other through life-threatening illnesses. Paulette, Quinton’s primary caretaker, gave him blue-ribbon health care in the family’s home. God blessed this union with four great children including a set of twins. Eldest to youngest: Shalanda Jefferson Moore of Killeen, Texas, Erick Jefferson (twin) of Lawrenceville, Georgia, Derrick Jefferson (twin) of Nashville, Tennessee, and Quinton Jefferson, III, of Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Other immediate survivors are his supportive siblings from eldest to youngest: sister, Annie Bell Jefferson of Dublin, Georgia; brother, James (Mary) Lanier Jefferson of Dublin; brother, Wesley (Ruby) Jefferson of Radcliff, Kentucky; sister, Dr. Maudine (Earl) Jefferson-Wood of Stone Mountain, Georgia ; sister, Gwendolyn (Rev. Jimmy Reeves) Jefferson Reeves of Sparta, Georgia; sister, Brenda (Willie) Jefferson Brown of Pembroke Pines, Florida; brother, Brady (Sylvia) Thomas Jefferson of Wrightsville, Georgia; and brother, Gary Dennis Jefferson of Memphis, Tennessee. The Late Barbara Jefferson Brooks, a sister, preceded Quinton in death.

Quinton lived a life of Christianity and service. He spent his childhood in Sunday School and church. After marriage, he returned to Sunday School and church where he lead his family to attend and serve. Serving as an avid member of the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, under Pastor C. R. Skinner, Quinton assumed many leadership duties including coordinator of the youth outreach committee and driving the church van. Because he had a strong desire to be laid to rest with family in Dublin, he recently joined Williams Chapel Baptist Church where Rev. Dr. Eddie Lee Hixon is pastor.

Serving in his community at an early age under the leadership of his mother, Quinton developed an obligation to make the world better than he found it. His strong work ethics ingrained by his father enabled him to achieve his goal in turning around situations in low-income communities one-step-at-a-time. His success encouraged him to earn membership in two outstanding service organizations in the nation: Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and Knoxville Optimist Club where he served as president numerous time during his tenure. Although different organizations, they share a similar mission, which is to edify and refine communities. He gave fifty-two years of service to the former and forty-one to the latter.

This strong Christian and service ethics shaped his self-confidence and asserted everlasting faith in every fiber of his being. Although he had Alzheimer’s , as his siblings visited with him in his final hours, he gripped each brother’s hand, and arm wrestled as they did whenever they congregated , while he looked at each sister and said, “Beautiful.” As his family, children, and siblings encircled his bed during his final hours, he repeatedly raised his right arm and passionately clinched his fist uttering the word "Strong.". His legacy of strength will forever live within them. Obstacles will become mere challenges.

Quinton leaves his strength to his children (Paulette), fourteen grandchildren, siblings, and nieces and nephews to encourage them to continue to carry the torch to the finish line.

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Services by Dudley Funeral Home of Dublin