Leon Bramlett, Politician and football player, Died at 92

  Dead Famous

Leon Crow Bramlett, Jr., sometimes known as Lee Bramlett was born on September 17, 1923, and passed away October 19, 2015.

Leon was a farmer and businessman from Clarksdale, Mississippi, who was a 1944-1945 All-American football player at the United States Naval Academy and the 1983 Republican nominee for governor of Mississippi.

In 1947, Leon married the former Virginia McGehee, known as Skeeter Bramlett (1923-2012), a native of Greenville, Mississippi, and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Thomas McGehee.

Virginia attended elementary school in Grenada, Mississippi, and returned to Greenville to graduate there from Greenville High School.

She subsequently received a degree from Randolph-Macon Women’s College, now known as Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia, where she was a member of Chi Omega sorority and the president of the Student Government Association.

She was named “Miss Greenville” by the Chamber of Commerce. When the Bramletts married, he was serving in the Marines, and the young couple lived for a time in Quantico, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. They then returned to Clarksdale, where Bramlett had his farming interests.

They were active in the First Presbyterian Church, a conservative Presbyterian Church of America congregation in Clarksdale.

Three children were born to the union of Leon and Virginia Bramlett: Leon C. Bramlett, III, of Clarksdale, Sallie Key Bramlett Russell (1948-1984), and Virginia Hartridge Bramlett of Bowie in Montague County near Wichita Falls, Texas.

Virginia Bramlett, Sallie Russell, and Leon Bramlett, Sr., are interred at Oakridge Cemetery in Clarksdale.

Leon was the owner of Bramlett Farms and Bramlett Gin & Delint in Clarksdale.

Leon died on October 19, 2015.