The Vicksburg Post prints obituaries for residents, former residents and residents’ immediate family members who resided elsewhere when notified by a family member or a funeral home. There is no charge for printing an obituary, but all are edited to meet the newspaper’s requirements.

Nettie L. Hood

Nettie L. Hood died Tuesday, April 29, 2003, at River Region Medical Center. She was 87.

A Vicksburg native, Miss Hood had been a Port Gibson resident for the past three years. She was the daughter of the late Huston H. and Nettie Wright Hood.

She retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after 53 years of service. She was a member of Port Gibson United Methodist Church.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by two brothers and a sister.

She is survived by a cousin, Judy Leggett of Vicksburg.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 1 p.m. Thursday until the service at Fisher Funeral Home.

Memorials may be made to Port Gibson United Methodist Church, 901 Church St., Port Gibson, MS 39150.

Rev. John Leonard

The Rev. John Leonard, a native of Ireland and a Catholic priest who served as an associate pastor in Vicksburg twice before retiring here, died Monday, April 28, 2003. He was 82.

The Rev. Leonard was born in Kiltoom, Ireland. He attended high school at Garbally College in Balinasloe, County Galway, Ireland, and attended the seminary at St. Patrick’s College, Carlow, Ireland, where he was ordained in 1948.

He arrived in Mississippi in December 1948 and was assigned as an assistant pastor at St. Mary Catholic Church in Jackson. After that, he served as an assistant pastor at St. Paul in Vicksburg from December 1949 until January 1952. He had other assignments at Our Lady of the Gulf in Bay St. Louis, St. Mary in Yazoo City. He was pastor at All Saints in Belzoni, Our Lady of Victories in Cleveland, St. Mary in Batesville and St. John the Baptist Mission in Sardis and St. Francis of Assisi in Shaw before returning to St. Paul in Vicksburg as senior associate pastor in September 1986. He also served as Newman chaplain at Delta State College in Cleveland. He retired Sept. 1, 1992.

The Rev. Leonard is survived by five nephews, Edward, Eamon, Patrick and James Leonard and Damlen Kenny; and five nieces, Geraldine Clifford, Terry Casey, Karen Leonard, Mairead Feeney and Ann Marie Leonard.

A wake will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at St. Paul Catholic Church in Vicksburg. A Mass will be at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Paul. Burial will be at the Kilotom Cemetery in County Roscommon, Ireland.