MCCORMICK

Orville Jerome McCormick Jr “OJ” of Manchester, Tennessee, passed away on Sunday, April 26, 2026. He was 87. Mr. McCormick was born in Manchester and was the youngest of eight children. He graduated from Coffee County High School, Class of 1957 and joined the US Navy on Nov. 25, 1957, and began a 21-year career serving our Country. He was assigned to USS MCCAFFERY DD-860, the USS OKLAHOMA City CLG-5 and to the USS LITTLE ROCK CLG-4. He served in Vietnam 1964-1966. He served 28 consecutive months on Yankee Station and other areas of combat with air strikes. He was awarded four Gold/Bronze Stars plus ribbon, Expeditionary Medal, Vietnam and Cuban Blockade, Presidential Unit Citation, and others. He was stationed at multiple Naval Bases on the East Coast and West Coast. Upon retiring from the Navy in 1977, he then went to work with Morrison & Knudsen (MK) in Tullahoma, at AEDC, and again going to big job sites across the Country. He retired in 1997. He was preceded in death by his parents Bishop Arvil McCormick and Bertha Blanche Davenport McCormick; his former wife Doris Jean Sanders McCormick the mother of three of his children, two of the children being deceased, Daughter, Tina Marie Brandon and Son, Steven Jerome McCormick and brothers and sisters, Mary Jane Parham, Claudia Virginia Weisgarber, Mattie Anna Ragan, James Dewey (JD) McCormick, Margie Ivalee Vandergriff, Joyce Marie Watson and Betty McCormick Roper. Mr. McCormick is survived by his daughter, Donna McCormick Robison Toney and Son-in-Law Danny M. Toney (Mike), and a son Clarence Anthony McCormick of Yorktown, Va, and his mother, former wife Kathy McCormick Millard. Mr. McCormick is also survived by five grandchildren, Michael Ray Robison, wife Crystal Gail Rhea Robison, Julie Marie Brandon of Manchester, Kristen Brandon Warden and husband Wes Warden of Sparta, and two Grandsons, Keegan Anthony McCormick and Colin Steven McCormick of Yorktown, VA, and Great-Granddaughter Hannah Gail Rhea Robison of Manchester. There will be a Celebration of Life for Mr. McCormick at Central Funeral Home, of Manchester, on Saturday, May 9, at 11 a.m. “Fair Winds and following Seas.” In lieu of Flowers, please send donations to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 10904, 130 Shelton Road, Manchester, TN, 37355.

Central Funeral Home is honored to have been entrusted the care of the McCormick family.