Dr. Joe Render Lovelady, 86, died Tuesday, May 30, 2017, at Oxford Health and Rehab in Oxford. The funeral service will be held Friday, June 2, 2017, at 2 p.m. at North Oxford Baptist Church with Rev. Carl Myers officiating. Burial will follow in St. Peter’s Cemetery. The visitation will begin at 12 p.m. prior to the service at the church.

Born in Oxford, to the late Cornelius and Sophronia Lee Calloway Lovelady, Dr. Lovelady was retired as an attorney/guardian ad litem and a member of North Oxford Baptist Church where he taught Sunday school. He was former president of the Rotary Club and the Kiwanis Club. He founded the Joe Lovelady Foundation and was a member of the M Club. Dr. Lovelady was the pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Oxford, and was the pastor of Edgewater Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana, for 24 ½ years. He was a graduate of Ole Miss Law School.  He was a veteran of the United States Air Force where he served as an Intelligence Specialist during World War II achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant.

Survivors include his wife, Betty Ruth Houston Lovelady of Oxford; a son, Joe Render “Rendy” Lovelady, Jr. of Franklin, Tennessee; brother, Frank Lovelady of Oxford; daughter-in-law, Katharine of Franklin, Tennessee and three grandchildren, Amber, Kirstie and Mendy Lovelady of Nashville, Tennessee.

Memorial designations in Dr. Lovelady’s memory may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105-1905.

For additional information or to sign an online guestbook, visit our website at www.wallerfuneralhome.com or call 662-234-7971.