Family, friends take to the field to honor lost teen Remembering Jarron

A teenager’s love for animals is helping injured and sick pets at the Poplar Bluff Animal Shelter.

After 17-year-old Poplar Bluff High School student Jarron Terrence Lamar Williams passed away Sept. 7, 2019, his friends decided to help his mother, Tanya Williams, purchase his tombstone.

Tournament organizer Rosa Johnson said they decided to have a softball tournament Aug. 15, 2020, but by then the headstone had been purchased.

Jarron Williams

Five co-ed teams entering the event raised $990 and organizers decided to do something with the money in Jarron Williams’ honor.

Johnson said, because of his love for animals, they decided to donate “the money we raised to the animal shelter to be used for whatever they need.”

Williams said, “my son would sneak our neighbors’ cats in the window at night.”

From left, Rosa Johnson and Tonya Williams present a donation to Poplar Bluff Animal Control Officer Mark Hastings as Tierra Johnson and Animal Control Officer Melanie Shipman look on. Shipman is holding one of the rescue dogs at the pound. DAR/BARBARA ANN HORTON

Animal control officers Mark Hastings and Melanie Shipman were happy to receive the money.

Hastings explained, the money will go into the donations fund to help animals who come in injured or sick go to a veterinarian and buy medication.

Since Jarron Williams’ mother worries people are forgetting him, friends and family plan to keep his memory and his love for animals alive in the coming years with an annual softball tournament.

Each team paid $200 to enter and the only money spent was for park fees.

This year’s event at Hillcrest Park was organized in a short time, so they limited the number of teams to five.

Team Jarron won first. The other teams were Top Gun, No New Friends, Space Monkey Mania and Making Softball Great Again.

The organizers are already planning next year’s tournament at McLane Park, which has four fields, and they may have up to 12-14 teams competing.

Johnson said, the players actually are all family who normally play ball on the weekends during the summer and fall.

“We all come together to support each other,” she said. “Players from Cape Girardeau and St. Louis get involved.

“This year I just wanted to help. Next year, I hope to make it bigger. Every year the money will go straight to the animal shelter. He loved animals.”