By Alyssa Schnugg
News editor
At the request of Sen. Nicole Boyd, the Oxford Board of Aldermen approved two resolutions Tuesday in support of renaming two roads after two men who significantly impacted Oxford in positive ways.
The renamings are honorary in nature and will retain their 911 addresses.
The resolutions will be presented to the State Legislature for final approval.
The portion of Highway 30 within the city limits of Oxford will be named the Nathan Hodges Jr. Memorial Highway.
A World War II veteran, Hodges chose to begin a career as a mortician and embalmer and he joined what was then Bankhead-McEwen Funeral Home, later Bankhead-Weems, as an embalmer and funeral director.
After a brief stint in Aberdeen, he returned to Oxford as a junior partner in Bankhead-Weems-Hodges Funeral Home and, in 1967, purchased the business and made it his own.
Hodges, who died in 2002, served on the Three Rivers Planning Board and the Parks and Recreation Board. He found the Lafayette County Improvement Club in 1952 at the Second Baptist Church in Oxford which later became the first NAACP chapter in Lafayette County.
A portion of Highway 334 inside the city limits will be renamed the Leonard E. Thomson Memorial Highway.
Thompson established his family in Oxford in 1962. He served as the first African American United States probation officer in the state of Mississippi and served on the Lafayette County Planning Commission for several years.
Thompson exemplified a lifetime of service for the betterment of the community, serving leadership positions in education, public service and church.
