Jerry Lee Briscoe

Graveside services for Jerry Lee Briscoe, 82, West Plains, Missouri, will be held at 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at New Liberty Cemetery, under the direction of Robertson-Drago Funeral Home.

Mr. Briscoe passed away at 5:55 p.m., Wednesday, November 11, 2020, at Ozarks Medical Center.

He was born July 7, 1938, at home just west of West Plains.  He was the youngest of the fifteen children of Ira Ellsworth Briscoe and Artie Mariah Tilson (Hopkins) Briscoe.  He attended the one room school at Crider, Missouri, before beginning high school in Dora, Missouri.  After his mother sold the family farm at Crider, they moved to West Plains where Jerry graduated with the Class of 1956.  On December 29, 1957, he was married to Billie Louise Lewis in Hernando, Mississippi.  His love, Billie, preceded him in death on September 11, 2013.  Jerry began working at Bohrer’s Drugstore located on Court Square when he was fifteen.  As the “Drugstore” evolved into being only a pharmacy, Jerry moved with it continuing to work side by side with Albert Bohrer until he sold the pharmacy in the early 1980s.  Jerry then worked a variety of jobs finishing his work career at Stewart-Morrison Redi Mix where he was lovingly referred to as “Grandpa.”  After retirement, he accompanied Billie daily on her mail route.  Until his health began to decline, Grandpa was always the life of the party with a joke for everyone.  His grandchildren lovingly remember him as their “Partner in crime.”  Jerry often told how he taught his grandchildren to drive a stick but said they drove like their Grandma – their foot on the pedal and the pedal to the metal.

He is survived by his three children, Vickie Lawrence and husband, Eddie, Rodney Briscoe and wife, Marilyn, and Jo Lindberg, all of West Plains; five grandchildren, Jerrod Lawrence, West Plains, Mariah Hayes and husband, Jason, West Plains, Ira Briscoe, Lanton, Missouri, Tessa Ebert and husband, Logan, West Plains and Zoe Lindberg, West Plains; three step-grandchildren, Nita Cawvey, West Plains,  Nancy Foulke and husband, Bob, Cassville, Missouri and Kelli VonAllmen and husband, Ricky, West Palins; four great-grandchildren, Jud, Rodney Wade, Jetty and Rylee; six step-great-grandchildren, Scotty, Ann-Renee, Madyson, Taylor, Evan and Luke; three sisters, Loretta Ball, West Plains, Ruth Bennett, West Plains and Rae Rhyne, Grand Junction, Colorado; and numerous nieces and nephews.

His parents, wife, his Briscoe siblings, I. J., Glen, Chub, Burl, Eva, Theaddus, Ethel, Maxine and Lorene, his Hopkins siblings, Warren and Juanita Mahan, his mother-in-law, Alma Lewis and several dearly loved nephews, preceded him in death.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and may be left at or mailed to Robertson-Drago Funeral Home, 211 West Main, West Plains, MO  65775.