JIMMY RANDELL PETERS
July 28, 1948 – July16, 2026
GRIMES…Jimmy Randell Peters passed away peacefully on Thursday, July 16, 2026, at the home he shared with his wife, Virginia, in Grimes, Alabama, following an extended illness.
Graveside services will be held 10:00 A.M. Monday, July 27, 2026 at Taylor Assembly of God Cemetery with his niece Charlotte Kirkpatrick speaking.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Taylor Assembly of God Cemetery Fund, c/o Mary Paulk, 131 Rice Rd, Taylor, AL 36301.
One of twelve children, Jimmy grew up knowing that if the family was going to make it, everyone had to do their part. At just thirteen years old, he rode his bicycle from Wicksburg to Dobb BBQ in Dothan to earn money to help his mother provide for their family. Eventually, he left school, setting aside his own education so he could help put food on the table.
It was simply what needed to be done.
He loved his mother deeply, and there was little he wouldn’t have done for her. Losing her in 1985 was another heartbreak in a life that would know more than most.
In 1977, tragedy forever changed Jimmy’s life. His wife, Brenda, and their young daughter, Christine, were taken from him in an unimaginable act of violence. Overnight, Jimmy became something almost unheard of in those days—a single father raising two toddlers, Eddie and Nina.
There were no instruction manuals. No support groups. Just two little children who still needed their dad.
So Jimmy went to work.
As an employee of White’s Plumbing, he spent his days building houses while dreaming of a home for his own children. While working on one particular house in Headland, Alabama, most laughed when Jimmy declared, “That’s going to be the house I buy for me and the kids.”
But Jimmy had a quiet determination that never needed anyone else’s approval.
He bought that house.
For years, 110 Terrace Drive became far more than bricks and mortar.
It became home.
His daughter lovingly called it “the orphanage,” because anyone who needed a place to stay—a night, a week, or however long life required—was always welcome there. Jimmy never seemed to have much to spare, yet somehow there was always room for one more.
If you wanted to understand Jimmy, you only needed to understand that house.
He believed that if someone needed help, and you were able to help, then you did.
He worked hard.
He sacrificed quietly.
And he made sure the people he loved were taken care of.
Life eventually brought love into Jimmy’s life again. In the early 1980s, he married Virginia, who came with a young son, Ladon. Jimmy never saw him as anything less than his own. Years later, that chapter came to an end, and Jimmy married Misty, with whom he welcomed his youngest son, Curtis. Although that marriage also ended, life has a way of coming full circle. In 2009, Jimmy and Virginia found their way back to one another.
True to the man he had always been, Jimmy stepped into the role of caregiver once again. After a workplace accident left Ladon paralyzed, Jimmy faithfully cared for the son he considered his own until his own declining health no longer allowed him to do so.
In 1996, Jimmy received another title that quickly became one of his favorites: Pepa Jimmy. When Bailey was born, a whole new chapter of his life began. Before long, Meghan, Garrett, Tucker, Madison, and Corilyn Rose joined the family, and each found their own special place in his heart. Becoming a grandfather gave Jimmy another generation to love, spoil, tease, and cheer on, and there was no mistaking the pride he carried whenever he talked about his grandkids.
Jimmy wasn’t a perfect man. No one who truly knew him would claim he was.
Like many families, theirs experienced seasons of closeness and seasons of distance. Time changed relationships, but it never erased the decades of sacrifice, devotion, and love that shaped the lives of his children.
That was Jimmy.
He wasn’t always good with words.
He was better with actions.
When Jimmy wasn’t working, there was a good chance he could be found doing one of three things: fishing, riding his motorcycle, or sitting beside a cooler full of Bud Light.
It’s impossible to know how many miles that little red pickup truck traveled with a boat in tow, chasing fish across Lake Eufaula. The loud exhaust probably announced his arrival long before he reached the water, yet somehow the fish never seemed to mind.
Some of his family’s favorite memories were made there—camping, fishing, laughing, and simply being together.
For Eddie, those fishing trips became the language he and his dad spoke best. In middle school, Jimmy once checked him out of school just to spend the day on the water. That was the day Eddie caught his first big bass. As the years passed, the stories—and the fish—grew bigger until they became the legendary ten-pound bass every fisherman dreams about.
Thanksgiving was probably Jimmy’s favorite holiday. He loved gathering at his sister Theresa’s house, where the family was loud, the food was plentiful, and there was almost certainly a homemade peanut butter cake waiting for him. Those meals became some of life’s sweetest gifts.
Jimmy’s life wasn’t easy. It was marked by more loss than most of us could imagine.
But yesterday, that life was rewarded when he heard the words every faithful servant longs to hear:
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
And in that moment, a nearly fifty-year wait finally came to an end. Jimmy wrapped his arms around Christine, the daughter he had missed every single day.
Jimmy was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Brenda; his precious daughter, Christine; his mother, Imogene Peters; his brothers, Gene and Johnny Robert; and his sisters, Carolyn, Molly, and Theresa.
He is survived by his wife, Virginia; his sons, Eddie, Curtis, and Ladon; his daughter, Nina; his six cherished grandchildren, Bailey, Meghan, Garrett, Tucker, Madison, and Corilyn; his sisters, Marilyn, Sharon, and Trina; his brothers, Johnny Harold, Ronnie, and Jeffrey; along with many nieces, nephews, extended family members, and friends whose lives were made better simply because Jimmy was part of them.
His story wasn’t perfect.
But it was honest.
It was resilient.
It was generous.
Above all else, it was a life spent showing up, working hard, opening his home, and carrying the burdens of the people he loved.
If you wanted to understand Jimmy, you only needed to understand that house a dad made a home.
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