Cecil "Dezmon" Alford

Funeral Services for Cecil "Dezmon" Alford will be held on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. from McClain-Hays Chapel with Rev. Billy Henry officiating. Burial will follow in Sandtown Cemetery. Visitation will be held Tuesday, May 23, 2023 from 12 noon until service time at McClain-Hays Funeral Home. Mr. Alford, 91, of Philadelphia, died Saturday, May 20, 2023. Dez was born and raised in the Bond or North Bend Community and was saved at New Hope Baptist Church in a summer revival in 1946. Then in 1999 God called him and his wife Marie in to the Gideon Ministry of Neshoba County, MS. He served his Lord in more than 15 counties as a Gideon speaker and also visited the prisoners in Parchman, Walnut Grove, Leaksville and others. He was an Air Force Veteran of the Korean War, serving as a radio mechanic on helicopters and amphibious Air-Sea Search Aircraft. He was a professional swimmer and senior life saver in the 7th and 9th Air-Sea Rescue Squadron of Wiesbaden AFB, Germany in 1951-1952. After being discharged in 1953, he then was married to Marie Alexander of Kemper County, MS on February 12, 1953; after more than two years of engagement and letter writing correspondence. His hobbies were hunting, fishing and bowling. Dez and Marie have two daughters, Tawanna (Larry) Tatum and Sherry (Jeff) Milner both of Madison; grandsons, Anson Lewis and Matthew Tatum (Angela); granddaughter, Ali Rogers (Bryce); great-granddaughter, London Tatum. Mr. Alford was preceded in death by his parents, Lace and Myrtle Alford. Pallbearers will be Darrell Fulton, Randy Seales, John Thomas, Bryce Rogers, Anson Lewis and Mark Henry. In lieu of flowers the family requests all memorials be made to the Alzheimer's Association Mississippi Chapter.