Jeans, 46, felled by heart attack while preparing training vehicles
By Wayne Risher
The Commercial Appeal
Copyright 2007 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.
EUDORA, Tenn. — A couple hours after DeSoto County remembered fallen public safety officers Friday, a Eudora fireman was stricken while prepping vehicles for training exercises.
Jeffrey Lynn “J.J.” Jeans, 46, was pronounced dead about 2:30 p.m. at Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto, where he was taken in the same ambulance that he drove for a living.
Jeans’ death has been ruled in the line of duty; officials said his name will be added to the courthouse memorial where National Peace Officer’s Memorial Day was observed Friday morning.
Emergency services officials were busy Monday arranging for a hero’s funeral with full honors for Jeans.
The farewell will include a procession of pumpers, ladder trucks and other firefighting equipment that could stretch for miles.
Jeans, a volunteer with county fire departments since 1991 and with Hernando for many years before that, had a busy morning last Friday.
Off duty from his job as ambulance driver at the Eudora fire station, he donned his volunteer fireman’s hat.
He fetched an overhauled motor for Eudora’s Engine No. 6 from a shop in Memphis, worked on the engine at the station, then went to a neighborhood shop to work on vehicles for training exercises.
Emergency services director Bobby Storey said the vehicles had to be stripped of dangerous parts before they could be used for training in emergency extrication and car fires.
Eudora chief Johnny McGhee said Jeans returned to the station complaining of being overheated.
“They said he came in and they found him laying on the kitchen floor a couple minutes later,” he said.
Co-workers worked in vain to revive him.
Storey said an autopsy determined Jeans died of a sudden heart attack, apparently from overexertion.
“It was ruled in the line of duty,” Storey said. “He will be the first in the line of duty death for a firefighter in DeSoto County. He also was the first black emergency services worker in DeSoto County.”
Jeans had worked as a volunteer firefighter for more than 25 years. He had been one of the county’s paid ambulance drivers since 1996. He was an intermediate emergency medical technician and had recently completed coursework for an associate degree in business, McGhee said.
Visitation will be 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at Henderson Funeral Home in Hernando, 4-7 p.m. Saturday at Eudora Fire Station and 1-2 p.m. Sunday at Longview Point Baptist Church at McIngvale and Byhalia roads in Hernando. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Longview Point.
Jeans leaves a son, Jacob Jeans of Memphis; his mother, Verdell Williams of Memphis; a brother, Darryl Jeans of Alaska; and a grandmother, Georgia Jeans of Hernando.
Henderson Funeral Home has charge of arrangements.
The funeral procession will follow a circuitous route west on old Miss. 304, past the Eudora station. It will hit Interstate 69 west of Eudora and follow the interstate back to Hernando and New Bethany Cemetery, where Jeans will be buried.
Storey said arrangements will be made to have Jeans’ name etched into the granite public safety officers’ memorial at the courthouse. The slab lists eight law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty.
“I could count on J.J. to do whatever needed to be done in whatever capacity,” McGhee said. “He was always building something, repairing something, cleaning something. J.J.'s been my right hand for several years now.”