It’s rare to know a person who has a quiet, giving spirit. One who does good and serves the community without the requirement of attention and praise. It’s not often we get to meet a truly humble servant.
A few lucky people got to know Keith McMullen, and a very few were fortunate enough to work alongside him. Keith was a local paramedic and Jones County volunteer firefighter who passed away on May 23, 2020. He passed away as quietly as he lived, with most in the community ignorant to his cancer diagnosis just 11 days prior to his death.
Keith was born in 1968 and grew up in Natchez, Miss. He moved to Jones County a couple of years after graduating high school. Keith attended Co-Lin Community College and studied mechanical engineering at USM. He found his passion, though, as a paramedic after attending the EMT-Paramedic program at UMMC in 2000.
Shortly after becoming a paramedic, Keith married his wife, Retha. He and Retha had one son, Case, together. After searching the world over in an attempt to complete their family, Keith and Retha went all the way to China, literally, and fell in love with a beautiful little girl, Christina. They adopted Christina in 2010, when she was three years old. Keith worked, and I mean a LOT. He worked sometimes day and night to provide for his family’s needs and wants. He would work his full-time day job at Hol-mac Corporation and then go in at night for a shift on the ambulance at either Emserv or AAA Ambulance Service.
Recalling their time together before they married, Retha said, “He warned me that he worked a lot.”
Outside of working, Keith spent time as an educator with the Workforce Development program at Jones College, teaching many emergency medical responders who serve in the Jones County fire service as volunteers. He was a Cub Scout Master and volunteered with his children’s various teams and sports, and he would’ve attempted to help Christina with dance if she’d asked. And as if all that wasn’t enough, he also found time volunteering as a firefighter with Southwest Jones Volunteer Fire Department.
Though he worked all the time, he still would attend ball games Case played in, sometimes pulling up and ballin’ in the ambulance. How he found time to handle three jobs and a family with two active children and still commit time to help his community as a volunteer firefighter is a mystery.
But he sure did.
He loved to laugh and reportedly “smiled to the end.” Coworker Christopher Mattox said that Keith was “one of the finest paramedics I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing. If he was ever in a bad mood, it was impossible to tell.”
Jones County has some fine people in it, of whom Keith was one of the finest. As a paramedic and firefighter, I’m honored to have known and worked with Keith. To Retha, Case and Christina, thank you for sharing him with us. His record of quiet service to the community, without seeking recognition or fanfare, will never be forgotten. He was a truly humble servant.
Dana Bumgardner, NRP, J.D.
Paramedic/firefighter
PIO Jones County Fire Council
Funeral Service Arrangements
Keith McMullen’s funeral service will be at Providence Baptist Church on Sunday, May 31, 2020. Visitation will be at 1:00 p.m., and the service will be at 2:30 p.m. Burial will be at Providence Cemetery.