JFP Person of the Day: Servia Fortenberry

Courtesy Servia Fortenberry

Servia Fortenberry serves her country in the armed forces and the city in the police department.

by Amanda Kittrell
October 27, 2009

If anyone is more American than apple pie, it would have to be Servia Fortenberry. Fortenberry, 39, is a native of Magnolia, Miss., and mother to two sons, Malcolm Williams, 18, and Edward Howard, 10. She became a Jackson transplant in 1997 when a truck lost control on a rainy day and hit her eldest son, putting him into a coma and a body cast for more than six weeks at a Jackson-area hospital. The accident forced her to move to the city where she became a temporary office worker at the mayor's office, and eventually worked her way into a permanent position. She decided to stay in Jackson permanently.

Fortenberry would not stay tied to a desk for long. Enlisting in the Army Reserves on July 6, 1989, she originally joined the armed forces to help finish paying for college at Jackson State University.

She received the call to active duty on Feb. 9, 2003, at 9 a.m. Knowing she was going to be deployed the following day, Fortenberry's thoughts immediately turned to the well-being of her children. When they heard the news that Mom was going to Kuwait, she says her sons "just cried and cried. My oldest son was about 12, and he was old enough to watch the news and know what was going on."

Fortunately, she has a "wonderful and tight" family structure that allowed her to call on her parents, Lethel and Elvalene Williams of McComb, Miss., when she was in desperate need. She stayed on ground in Kuwait for seven months, and then finished out the rest of her 14-month deployment in various states around the U.S.

What was the first thing she did when she got back to her home state on April 24, 2004? "I went to my mother's house in the country, and we had a big party," she says. "My kids were glued to me; they wouldn't let me move!"

As if serving 13 years in the Army weren't enough, Servia Fortenberry re-enlisted in the Air National Guard Reserve, where she now works as a staff sergeant; she has served with them for over three years. When she is not serving her country, Fortenberry is fighting the battle at home by working as a reserve police officer with the Jackson Police Department, mainly directing traffic for special events and acting as a back-up for already patrolled areas.

The next time you see Fortenberry, wish her congratulations on her recent nuptials. She recently celebrated her four-month anniversary to her second husband, Alonzo Fortenberry. They were married—you guessed it—on July 4, 2009.

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