Last week’s article featuring Chris Reed was concerned with Chris primarily and how he and Melisia Spence met, married, and had a family. This week features Melesia, her family, and the children.
Melesia was born November 30, 1964, to John and Marie Spence of Decatur. Her father, former principal of Decatur High School for many years, had also served in the Navy. Her mother, Miss Marie, as many call her now, had been a secretary at East Central Community College before becoming her husband’s secretary. John and Marie had been married 47 years when he passed away in 2003 at the age of seventy. Chris said of his wife’s parents, “I have the best mother-in-law in the world. And John was arguably one of my best friends when he was alive. We did a lot together.”
Melesia’s older brother was Michael Kent Spence, married to Connie Cumberland of Philadelphia and owner of Keepsakes Photography of Philadelphia. Their daughter Chesney is married to Jacob Wiggs, also of Philadelphia. Caroline, four months old, is their little girl. Chris told me that the talented photographer “was adored by thousands. Tragically, he battled pancreatic cancer for years and passed away in 2005.
Growing up in Decatur, Melesia played clarinet in the Decatur High School band, performing as a majorette. Also the Annual Co-editor, and involved in Beta, she graduated in 1982 as Salutatorian. She graduated from East Central in 1984 before earning her B.S. in Elementary Education and a Master’s degree from Mississippi State University. Her first teaching position was a third grade class at West Lauderdale, where she met Chris three years later on the class field trip to the naval base in Meridian.
Melesia has been teaching first grade at the Newton County Elementary School for twenty-one years. When I asked about what she wanted for her future, she replied, “I want to work as long as I can.” I asked about the children coming to her from kindergarten, to which she replied, “A lot of them do come to us reading. Expectations are just there. The kids can rise to the occasion. They will do what you expect them to do. They’ll get excited about it when they realize they can do something hard.”
Melesia told me of how she came to know the Lord as her personal Saviour when she was twelve years old. She was brought up in a Christian home, attending Clarke-Venable Baptist Church, when, in a revival service, she had a feeling in her heart, a knowing, and thought, “I am ready to give my life to God.” At Mississippi State University, with no one to make her attend church, she rededicated her life to stay on the right path with the Lord. She declared, “It’s all about a personal relationship with God.”
In 2016, Melesia was placed in the hospital in ICU for a week on a vent, suffering from double pneumonia. Some doubted she would live. Teachers at NCES met Rev. Mark Vincent, Pastor of Clarke Venable Baptist Church, in the school cafeteria on a Tuesday morning before school, where he led them in prayer. That Thursday, Melesia pulled the vent tube out herself and was soon released from the hospital to fully recover at home.
A huge part of the Reeds’ story is that of their two children Brittany and Bryden. Both graduated from Newton County High School after excelling in sports. Brittany was a cheerleader, a soccer player, and, her daddy said, “a high school social director. Everybody was her friend.” Bryden played soccer, tennis, and football, earning three state championships in tennis. Both played college soccer on scholarships, Brittany at Meridian Community College and Bryden at Hinds Community College.
Brittany graduated from Mississippi State in 2013 and, with a Master’s in Dyslexic Therapy from Mississippi College, teaches second grade in Rankin County School District. She is married to Jacob Pierce, the son of the late Sherry Pierce and Billy Pierce of Decatur. He works with a company called Weed Warriors.
Bryden graduated in 2018 from the Mississippi university called the “W” as a nurse with a B.S. in Nursing. He now works in the Neuro ICU at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center. In October 2017, a week before Brittany’s wedding, Bryden was admitted into the hospital himself, very ill with aplastic anemia. Thankfully, he is now doing fine.
Those years that the Reed kids played on soccer teams based in Jackson, Melesia spent several hours a week taking them from Decatur to Jackson and back. She told me, “Soccer probably kept the kids out of a lot of trouble. There were a lot of good conversations on the road.”
The church has been important in the Reed children’s lives, also. In lieu of revivals of the past, Melesia and Chris told me that the children were both saved at Kids’ Camp, with Disciple Now also being a big influence. This family’s story illustrates so well how God moves in people’s lives to bring them to a decision for Christ then on to growing in their Christian faith. Chris’s faith had to have help from outside the home, whereas Melesia was reared in a Christian home.
Melesia’s widowed mother, Ms. Marie Spence, is MeMe to her grandchildren, Brittany, Bryden, and Chesney. She likes to stay active, visiting the nursing home often and volunteering at the church a couple days a week. Her older sister, Ms. Marlene Welch, has been battling cancer for years, and Ms. Marie takes her to her doctor visits. Melesia told me, “Ever since we moved back to Decatur, she has cooked lunch for the whole family on Sundays.” Both Mr. and Mrs. John Spence retired from the Central Office for Newton County Schools after many years of service.
Royce and I did not have a chance to get to know Mr. John Spence well; however, we were blessed to have become friends with Ms. Marie, even discovering that we had a mutual friend, Bettye Clark, in Bassfield, Mississippi. It’s a small world, and I am glad to have the experience of meeting so many people of “like Christian faith” here in Decatur, Mississippi.
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
