Lewis J. Lord

Published 4:31 pm Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Aug. 23, 1937 – Feb. 13, 2025

Natchez native Lewis J. Lord, age 87, died from complications of cancer on Feb. 13, 2025, at Inova Fairfax Hospital, a short distance from the Falls Church, VA home he shared with his cherished wife of 46 years, Dee. Lewis was adored by his extensive family and friends for his good cheer and friendliness, quick wit, and countless funny stories.

Lewis was born on Aug. 23, 1937, in a shotgun cabin in Greenville, MS, the first child of Earl and Elizabeth Lord. The family moved to wartime Mobile, AL, where Lewis cheered for Hopalong Cassidy at the Roosevelt Theater, night-gigged for flounder in Mobile Bay, and rejoiced with thousands in Bienville Square on VJ Day.

In 1948 Earl got a job at the new Johns-Mansville plant and the family moved to Natchez, which Lewis always considered his sentimental “home.” Lewis first attended the Natchez Institute, where classmates sang: “Rooty toot toot/Rooty toot toot/We’re the girls from the Institute/We don’t smoke, and we don’t chew/And we don’t go with boys who do.”

Lewis and pals—who proved lifelong friends—roamed Natchez bayous and antebellum estates, watched picture shows at the Baker Grand, unwillingly waltzed at the Martha Hootsell School of Ballroom Dance, shot the bull at Neil’s Drive-In, and saw Jerry Lee Lewis and Papa George Lightfoot play the Blue Cat Club.  Lewis graduated in 1955 from Natchez High, where he was known for his good humor, Pogo quotations, peachy cheeks, and editing the school newspaper.

Lewis never looked back from journalism. At age 16, he was hired as a proofreader by The Natchez Times and advanced to sports editor. He became news editor—a week after graduating high school—when the prior green eyeshade went to New Orleans one weekend to play the horses and never came back.

While Lewis attended Millsaps College in Jackson, the local bureau of United Press International hired him to cover Mississippi news and politics. Meanwhile, civil rights leader Medgar Evers, history professor Ernst Borinski, and courageous UPI colleagues like John Herbers and Bob Gordon fully opened Lewis’s eyes to the injustice of racial segregation. Lewis covered the mass arrests of Freedom Riders in Jackson and the federal litigation brought by NAACP attorney Constance Baker Motley to desegregate Ole Miss.

Lewis went on to work at the UPI bureaus in Columbia, Nashville, Atlanta, and Washington, eventually running the UPI’s Southern news operation. After 20 years, Lewis joined U.S. News and World Report magazine in Washington, where he spent 30 years as a writer and editor. He wrote engaging and deeply researched articles for the general reader on such topics as the Civil War, Ancient Rome, pre-Columbian America, Karl Marx, Thomas Jefferson, the WWII Home Front, and the South.

In retirement, Lewis enjoyed listening to his hundreds of tapes of the WAMU Jerry Gray classic country radio show, swapping stories with former UPI colleagues, reading the papers, and spending time with his beloved family. Lewis returned often to Natchez to visit friends and family or to speak at the Literary and Cinema Celebration.

Lewis was predeceased by his parents; brothers, David and Mack Lord, and brother-in-law, Michael Gemmell.

He is survived by his wife, Dee; his sister, Elaine Gemmell; his daughters, Cathy Ghaffarian (Mo) and Dinah Winchester (Evan); his sons, David (Dana), John (Debbie), Mark (Bari), and Charlie (Erin); nieces and a nephew, 16 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.

A funeral service and burial for Lewis were held in Falls Church, VA. A remembrance for Lewis in Natchez is being planned for this Spring.

Instead of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Alliance to Cure Cavernous Malformations.