Reporter’s Note: Because we are not perfect, we all stumble off that “straight and narrow” path at some point in our lives. When we have to deal with the consequences of our actions, we tend to wallow in self-pity and many times we believe that we are the only ones in the world who are in despair or will ever feel so down.

I believe that some people are placed in your life to make you a better you. While these people may not always tell you what will make you better, sometimes just hearing about their lives, journeys and feelings can inspire you. John Pierce III inspired me after our first conversation.

Though paralyzed from the chest down, Pierce is one of the strongest and courageous people one could meet. His confidence is apparent as soon as he enters a room and his story is one that should be shared with the world.



VALDOSTA — When John Pierce III sings, a country-music legend comes to mind. While sitting outside his countryside home in Brooks County, the 54-year-old veteran sang a few lyrics from a piece he just wrote and hopes to one day sing in church.

With a love for musical gurus like Nat King Cole and Elvis Presley, Pierce enjoys listening to tunes from decades past.

“I’m a dinosaur when it comes to music,” Pierce said. “Modern music doesn’t move me. I love old rock and roll, Motown and doowop. I grew on the Temptations, Four Tops, Platters and Merle Haggard.”

With musical talent of his own, Pierce has been paid for a few songs he wrote and sang.

Pierce was born and raised in Valdosta. Though his family was poor, he grew up in a family with Christian values and strong neighborly love. His mother, Garie Catherine Pierce-Peeples, married his father, J.W. Pierce Jr., at 15 and gave birth to him at 16.

As a child, Pierce enjoyed the outdoors, fishing and camping along the rivers with his father and uncles.

“Those men taught me to appreciate nature long before ‘being green’ was the thing to be.”

Though Christianity was introduced to Pierce between the ages of 10 and 12, he did not fully embrace religion until years later.

Pierce attended Lowndes County schools, but quit Lowndes High School in 1970, shortly before his 16th birthday, and enlisted in the U.S. Army.

“It was a tradition to go to the military in my family,” Pierce said. “At the time, I was 220 pounds and 6 feet 2 inches tall.”

Two years after he began his service, Pierce’s father passed away. Pierce came home for the burial to find his family living in a small shed-like house behind his grandparents’ home.

“Daddy had $1.14 in his pocket when he died,” Pierce said. “He wasn’t the type who would tell me if they were having financial problems. I was left to take care of my mother and help her raise my brothers.”

Pierce took care of his family from money he received in the Army as well as money he earned working for a nightclub.

“I thought I was cool and I tried to be cool because I was a player back then,” Pierce said with a grin. “Let’s just say that Wilt Chamberlain and I had a lot in common. That made me a man by no means, however. I lived for the day and didn’t set goals.”

More than a year after his father’s death, Pierce’s mother remarried and later had another son.

Pierce returned from the military in late 1974 and fell into an ample amount of peer pressure.

“I would do drugs, drink and party,” Pierce said. “I had gotten liquored up, doped up and had partied big for three days when I drove into the Lee Street Baptist Church going 116 miles per hour. That was when I broke my neck. I was sent to Shands Hospital, where I stayed for three months.”

Doctors told Pierce’s mother that he would never be able to get out of bed again and suggested that she place him in a nursing home. However, she immediately rejected the suggestion.

“My mama and I had a unique bond. She had me so young, I guess we kind of grew up together. She sacrificed so much for me. But then again, that’s just the way of my family.”

Before Pierce could go to a rehabilitation clinic following his release from the hospital, he had to wait for Veterans Affairs to complete his arrangements. He moved in with his mother, became depressed and began to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day.

“I wanted to die,” Pierce said. “And I was so mean to my mother. I would hear her in the other room crying every night because of the way I acted. I smoked so much until I caught pneumonia at one point and refused medical treatment until I passed out one day. My mother put me under the care of Dr. Purvis Sr., who said that he would take care of me.”

Purvis put Pierce in isolation in 1975 and sent him to a rehabilitation clinic in Warm Springs until the VA papers were complete.

“I got a rude awakening at that clinic, because I got to see people who had conditions worse than mine.”

While going through therapy, Pierce made several friends and recalls a time when former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited the clinic.

“Mr. Carter was the governor of Georgia at the time and told us that he planned to run for president ,then asked how we felt about it. I told him that it was my philosophy that politicians, if you think about it, are a lot like Christopher Columbus. When they set out, they have no idea where they are going and when they return, they have no idea where they have been; and they do it all on somebody else’s money.”

During the remainder of his stay at the clinic in Warm Springs, Pierce did some writing.

“The nurse told me to write for therapy. So I wrote a piece about my wreck. Without my knowledge the nurse sent my story to the Georgia State Patrol and the patrol published it. The GSP superintendent later came to Warm Springs to present an award to me. He also told me that my story would be shared with other posts and asked me to speak at a few schools to warn students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. I spoke at some schools ... I laid it out on the line and it wasn’t pretty sometimes.”

After the VA arrangements were complete in 1976, Pierce was transferred to a rehab center in Tampa, Fla. and was place in a unit headed by “Dr. George.”

“He was a stern man, but we took to each other immediately and became really good friends. He did all of my surgeries.”

One day Pierce asked to stay awake during surgery to watch the operation. George obliged and gave Pierce an anaesthetic to numb him from the waist down so he could see the operation.

“I saw so much, I eventually fainted. The next thing I remembered was a nurse waking me up. That was the last time I asked to watch an operation.”

Pierce underwent 16 major surgeries during his 21-month stay in the unit. He was placed in an electric moving chair after his therapy was complete.

Pierce worked as a DJ at a radio station at an Air Force base in Tampa after he was released. During his down time, he would visit the center.

“One day an employee show me a room filled with DJ equipment at the hospital, so I got some music from my station and began to DJ for the veterans.”

Pierce later formed the New Wheels Counseling Group with some of his friends who were in wheelchairs.

“Whenever a new patient with injuries arrived at the center, we went and introduced ourselves. We didn’t force the counseling on anyone, but we did give some encouragement, just to let them know that there is life after the wheelchair.”

Pierce returned to Georgia in 1982 and was placed in a VA clinic in Augusta. There, he helped the recreation director and served as an active member of Paralyzed Veterans of America.

In 1989, Pierce began his tenure as an administrative clerk for the USDA Risk Management Agency in Valdosta. The same year, he enrolled in Valdosta State College, but had to quit after three quarters due to failing health. Pierce then redirected his focus on his job.

“I also quit smoking in 1989. I quit cold turkey. My mother, who also smoked, quit a few weeks later.”

Pierce was later appointed to the EEO Civil Rights Council as a representative to the office in Washington, D.C. Pierce traveled all over the United States, many times with his mother by his side.

In 1993, Pierce’s mother was diagnosed with throat cancer. She battled the cancer for two to three years until it went into remission. In 1997, the cancer returned.

“My mother passed away Nov. 5, 1999, six months after I retired from work,” Pierce said.

Although Pierce never smoked or drank again, he said he wanted to die after his mother’s death.

“I got so sick that I had to be hospitalized.”

Pierce found his reason to live in a woman named Ome, pronounced “oh-me,” whom he met online in 1999.

“She lived in Hazard, Ky. at the time. I drove up to Hazard to get her in 2000 and we were married in 2001. We’ve been together ever since.”

Despite his fulfilling romantic life, Pierce still had an “emptiness that nothing could fill.”

“I began to experience respiratory failure at the beginning of this year and I was hospitalized at one point. I made a choice to go to church.”

Pierce attended Ousley Baptist Church, where he met Pastor Dr. Clyde Stokes of Hahira.

“I talked to Pastor Stokes about my problems,” Pierce said. “He’s the type of man who takes every person in like its his real brother. Three days after our conversation, I found the Lord.”

Pierce and his wife were baptized yesterday as members of Ousley. Pierce now sings at the church.

“I’m with the Lord ... I walk with him now and I speak his name whenever I can. I have been shot, cut, beaten, been legally dead three times and high on every drug out there with the exception of a needle. There is no chemical that can give me the high that God has.”

Pierce has lived in Brooks County for more than 20 years. He has also been writing a journal for about 10 years and hopes to compile a book one day. He plans to go back to school in the spring to obtain a degree in journalism.