Melvin "Smokey" Burgess

Melvin "Smokey" Burgess, 78, of Vicksburg, MS, passed away on January 9, 2025, at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Smokey was born on November 21, 1946, in Meridian, MS. He graduated from Meridian high School in 1965. He attended Meridian Junior College before transferring to the University of Southern Mississippi. In 1972, Smokey moved to Vicksburg to work for Mabel and George Abraham at Sunflower Food Company.

He is preceded in death by his mother Doris Driscoll and a granddaughter Mary Katherine Kealhofer.

Smokey met his wife Sherry at Meridian High School when she was fifteen and he was eighteen. They were together for sixty years and married for fifty-five of them. He is survived by his wife Sherry Burgess, his children, Mel Burgess (Josie), Heather Kealhofer, Thad Burgess (Lindsay), Cassie Key (Jamie), and his grandchildren, Jacob, Hudson, Lilli, and Reece.

Private interment will be held.

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