James Thomas Hambrick of Des Arc died at 2:40 a.m. on Thursday, March 12, 2026, at the John L. McClellan Veterans Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Jay, as he preferred to be known, was born August 28, 1929, in Judsonia, Arkansas, to parents, James Chester Hambrick and wife, Lillian Grace Luton. He was the eldest of seven children.  Lillian turned 15 in February before Jay was born in August.

Jay first attended the Ridout School in a small community north of Des Arc Bayou and then went to “town school” in Des Arc, but his education was cut short. On April 23, 1951, Jay joined the U.S. Army and served in Alaska during the Korean Conflict, protecting the gun sites around Elmendorf Air Force Base. Though his captain pleaded with him to stay in the U.S. Army, he refused saying, “No, I’ve got a girl waiting for me at home.”

School girls were encouraged to write letters to military soldiers and Georgia Ellis began writing to Jay. They wrote letters to each other for two years and the family still has most of them.

Jay was discharged on March 19, 1953. His journey ended with a bus ride to Memphis, Tennessee, where Georgia was waiting for him. Jay and Georgia never had a date. They drove to Des Arc the very next day where they were married on March 20, 1953, by Jay’s uncle, Rev. L. C. Felts. Jay and Georgia were married for over 46 years. Georgia had to pay for the marriage license because all Jay had was his muster out paycheck and the local bank refused to cash it; until Dr. Gilliam went to the bank later and demanded it be done.

Jay’s car was in Indiana with his parents, who were seasonal farm workers in Michigan and Indiana, so the newlyweds went to retrieve the vehicle. Jay first got a job with a body shop before being hired by McCormick-Deering in Chicago, Illinois; but Jay and Georgia very quickly found out that they were going to be parents and they moved back to Memphis, Tennessee. After months of searching for employment, Jay was hired as a box layout designer by Plough, Inc. (now Merck), where Jay was given three shares of stock instead of a bonus, for the design of a half-circle, perforated, thumb opening on the company Epson Salt box. Georgia was employed as a teller at First National Bank on Danny Thomas Blvd. in Memphis, for 13 years before they moved in 1964 to Des Arc.

Jay and Georgia welcomed their first daughter, Martha, in 1954. They later rented a small house on Pope Street, to where they brought their second daughter, Marilyn, who was born in 1955. Jay and Georgia soon bought a small house on Ronnie Road in Memphis. After moving back to Memphis, Jay received his GED and attended Memphis State College for business classes.

After years of scrimping and saving, they bought several acres in Atoka, Tennessee. Both parents worked in Memphis, an hour or more away, and they drove back and forth every day. Their daughters went to school in Munford, which was several miles in the opposite direction. The couple began to build a small home themselves. Jay was a skilled handyman and soon had a small home, a barn, three ponds, and fences for horses and cattle, a chicken pen, a storage shed, and a playhouse for the girls. Jay also had a Tennessee walking horse stallion. The naval base at Millington, Tennessee, was not too far from Atoka and Jay purchased four mobile homes, which he fixed up and rented to U.S. Navy families. Jay and Georgia also joined a square dance group in Millington called The Salty Stompers.

In the fall of 1963, Jay collapsed in his yard, from what was later found out to be bleeding ulcers.  His condition was hard to diagnose because the tear was found in a crease in the uppermost part of his stomach. Doctors wound up doing experimental surgery on his stomach and told him that if he lived five years, he would probably live a normal life.

With this prediction of uncertainty looming over them, Jay and Georgia decided they would sell their Atoka homeplace and move closer to their parents in Des Arc, Arkansas, so Georgia would have help raising their children if Jay did not survive.

Georgia’s father, George Ellis, told Jay & Georgia to stake out one acre anywhere they wanted, and build a new home. One of Georgia’s cousins, Donald Ellis, who was employed by and later retired from Honeywell in Memphis, helped with plumbing.

When the 1963-64 school term was almost complete, Jay arranged to borrow two bob trucks, used for hauling crop grains, and with the help of Georgia’s brother, Lowell Ellis, they loaded the trucks with everything they could get on them. The next morning they all jumped in the truck and headed to Arkansas. Martha rode in one truck and Marilyn in the other; both girls made the entire trip in their pajamas as everything else had been packed.

It was at this time that Jay and his brother, W.C. (known as Steve), decided to open Hambrick’s Auto Supply. After a few years, Jay and Georgia split off, keeping the original store. Steve and his wife, Gladys, opened a NAPA franchise store next door with the idea: what one of our businesses doesn’t have, maybe the other will. They later expanded their business by hiring personnel to work on automobiles and farm equipment. Jay assembled a complete machine shop where they replaced valves in heads and milled them, if necessary, bored cylinders and rebuilt engines, and resurfaced flywheels and brake rotors, among other things.

Jay and Georgia were instrumental in organizing a square dance group in Des Arc called the White River Robins; and were charter members, for many years.

Georgia was an extremely good money manager, and through sales promotions from their parts warehouses, she was able to procure trips for them to the Bahamas, the French West Indies, Hawaii, London and Paris.

Jay & Georgia operated this business for 26 years before selling out and retiring. To celebrate, they went along on a three-month vacation across the United States and Alaska with Georgia’s youngest brother and his wife, Lowell and Rita Ellis.

Georgia’s health began to decline; and although she had dementia, Jay took care of her until she died on September 28, 1999. After Georgia’s death, Jay enjoyed his retirement by fishing every chance he could. Like his maternal great-grandfather, Will Luton, Jay loved to fish for catfish on White River or Cache River. He did not like to fish in lakes because lakes generally don’t have a water current flow.

Jay’s gastro problems were part of his entire life but they slowly got worse as he got older, and along with other health issues, finally resulted with his death.

Jay received his 50-year pin as a member of the Masons in 2022. He was also a 32nd Degree Mason.

He was preceded in death by his parents and five siblings. Jay is survived by two daughters: Martha Hambrick Harrell (Dennis) and Marilyn Hambrick Sickel (Lynn); four grandsons, Anthony “Tony” Harrell, Mason Sickel, Joshua Harrell and Andrew “Drew” Sickel and eight great-grandchildren; one sister, Elsie Dohm; and a host of nieces and nephews.

Jay’s family expresses their sincere appreciation to the doctors, nurses, and staff of the John L. McClellan Veterans Hospital in Little Rock, the VA facility North Little Rock, as well as Unity Hospital in Searcy, Arkansas.