James William Griffith died peacefully at Baptist Hospital in Jackson, MS on September 18, 2023, after a short illness. Visitation will be at Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home in Clinton, MS, beginning at 12:30p.m. on Friday, September 22, 2023 and the funeral will begin at 2:00p.m. Interment will follow at the Bolton Cemetery on Old Highway 80.

James was born in Columbia, MS on June 10, 1946, the first of five children to Cleveland William Griffith and Jesse Olene Roberts Griffith. He attended Hinds Community College and the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where he met his life-long friend, Kenneth Barton.

He spent two years in Vietnam and was awarded with a Bronze Star and the Air Medal. James worked with and for the FBI and the DEA in Mississippi as an undercover detective and a member of an elite task force.

J.W. met his loving wife of 30 years, Jennifer Bledsoe-Griffith, during a cookout. He had a wonderful sense of humor and a soft tender heart. He loved "Talk Radio", the Ole Miss Rebels, sitting on his porch, his flower garden, his dogs "Rebel" and "Jasper", and his cat "Dixie Cat".

He was preceded in death by his brother, Randy.

In addition to his loving wife, he leaves behind his sons, William Kip Griffith and James Lawson Griffith, and his sisters Jo Ann Bruce (Kenny), Joyce Perry (Bobby), and Cathy Fountain (John).