Dr. Lee Eady is the chiropractor of choice for me and many residents of Newton County. Buddy Lee Eady, Jr., was the only child born November 16, 1972, to Buddy Lee Eady, Sr., of Forest and Wanda Faye Bounds Eady of Newton. He told me he was reared in a Christian home, with a normal childhood, except for the tragic death of his father when Lee was six. When he was about twelve, his mother married George Bethany, who was a farmer. She worked at Ross Bounds Quik-Sak-Um convenience store for years, then at The Lawrence Store, a western store in Lawrence, Mississippi.
Lee attended Newton City schools, keeping up BETA Club-worthy grades but primarily playing baseball. He graduated in 1991 before attending ECCC on a baseball scholarship. He earned his Associate’s degree in Business Administration in 1993, then his Marketing degree from Ole Miss in 1995. He then worked for three years for Kirk Thames and Thames InduServe as office manager, in charge of purchasing, inventory, etc.
He had always been interested in sports and physical fitness and began thinking about becoming a chiropractor. He had been treated by a chiropractor after a four-wheeler accident in high school. Also, while at ECCC, he had a nagging hamstring pain that wouldn’t go away until one visit to a chiropractor.
Lee visited a couple chiropractic colleges, Palmer College in Davenport, Iowa, and Parker College in Dallas, and decided to attend the one in Dallas. He had to get a few more science courses at ECCC in 1997-98. While there he worked as a graduate assistant baseball coach, under Coach Jamie Clarke and Assistant Coach Neal Holliman. That was the first year East Central Community College won the Mississippi State Championship of junior colleges.
In reply to my question about where he met his wife Becky, he grinned and said, “At a gas station in Newton.” This was the summer before his sophomore year at ECCC and before her senior year of high school. Becky Luke, who graduated from Newton County High School in 1993, is the daughter of Robert and Joyce Luke of Decatur. Lee and Becky were married August 8, 1998. They lived in Oxford until she finished her Master’s in Speech/Language Pathology in Spring 1998.
He graduated from Parker Chiropractic College in August 2002, concurrently earning a B.S. in Anatomy. Dr. Edward Long in Forest was a friend and chiropractic mentor. When he retired and moved to the Coast with his wife to be close to their grandchildren, Dr. Eady took over his practice before building his present office on Highway 80 in Forest in 2008.
Becky has been the speech/language pathologist in different settings in the past; however, at present she is the Program Director of the Tom Maynard Rehab at Anderson’s Hospital and of the swing-bed unit. Dr. Eady told me, “She’s managed both of those for the last five years.” He said of Becky, concerning her role as wife and mother, “Tireless. She goes above and beyond!”
The Eadys’ children are Ryder Lane Eady, born November 4, 2004, and Laura Leigh Eady, born August 10, 2008. Ryder, a tenth grader, enjoys horseback riding and rodeo events, following in the footsteps of his father. Dr. Eady has homeschooled Ryder the last two years. Laura Leigh will be going into the seventh grade in Newton County Middle School. She rides some, but she has become more active in music and drama. She will be playing the clarinet in the NCHS band and recently acted in the play Rock of Ages in the Little Theatre in Newton.
Lee grew up always having horses and began riding seriously in junior high school. He did barrel racing, speed events, team roping, and roping calves. From about age fourteen, he worked for a professional horseman, Mr. Tom McBeath, an American Quarter Horse Association judge from Sebastopol, Mississippi, who trains and sells horses. Lee recalled, “I started riding horses for him, and he took me all over the country. He has had a lot to do with my success.”
For the past ten or twelve years, because of his chiropractic practice, Lee didn’t do much riding. At about thirty years of age, he picked it back up. He owns several horses, rides three or four times a week, and again competes in rodeo events. I asked what he enjoyed most about riding, to which he replied, with a smile, “The quiet. Horses are primarily non-verbal.”
Dr. Eady told me of his Christian upbringing, “I went to church growing up but wasn’t terribly active. I probably had hard feelings after Dad died. Struggled with it. Didn’t understand it. Didn’t want anybody to get close to me.” He mused that, at about the age of 18-20, “You start realizing you can’t do it on your own.” When he and Becky started dating, he remembered, “We had issues. She helped me be able to get close to people.”
He had a usual childhood experience of church membership, but, in Dallas, God took him and Becky a step further. She had a job waiting tables at Chili’s Restaurant in Dallas. The manager’s father was a Lutheran minister. Lee began playing on the church baseball team, and they attended his church. He added, “Becky made some friends who were strong in their faith that we spent time with.”
When they moved back home, they attended Clarke-Venable Baptist Church and were re-baptized by Rev. Stan Buckley. After he left, Rev. John Cash, Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, became Dr. Eady’s patient. They began attending there, which they do till this day. Dr. Eady has been a deacon and on the church board for six or seven years. Becky is involved in a lay ministry and church leadership prep group called Cursillo. He and the Cashes have also gone through the program and worked on staff with Cursillo. Bro. Cash recently retired. Their present pastor, Rev. Evan Strickland, and his wife were recent missionaries to Canada.
As we discussed Christian things, he told me, “Whatever happens, you just have to deal with it and go on.” A scripture he lives by is Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” He continued, “My personality is that of a fixer. I try to do something to fix things. Sometimes you have to wait on God and be still.” That is definitely a truth for living a successful Christian life.
As a chiropractor, he can fix all he wants, which he definitely does! He has treated many an athlete referred to him by the coaching staff at ECCC. Mr. Neal Holliman, baseball coach at ECCC, told me, “We had a freshman who missed forty games and had seen a lot of doctors. Dr. Eady was the only one who could get him back on the field.” He said of Dr. Eady, “He is probably one of the most knowledgeable, common-sense people in his profession, more than anyone else around.” It is good to know that my chiropractor depends on God to give him the wisdom and skill to be successful at helping and “fixing” people who have aches, pains, and physical disabilities.
