Otha H. Barham, Jr.

A memorial service celebrating the life of Mr. Otha H. Barham, Jr. will begin at 2:00 PM Friday, November 20, 2026, at Poplar Springs Drive United Methodist Church, with the Reverends Dayna Goff and Michael P Barham, Rector St. Andrew's Episcopal Church College Park, MD, officiating. Robert Barham Family Funeral Home is honored to be entrusted with arrangements.

Mr. Otha H. Barham, Jr., age 90, of Meridian, passed away Sunday, September 27, 2026 at Marion Health and Rehab.

Otha was born in 1935 in Meridian to the late Otha H. Barham Sr. and Bertha Waltman Barham. He graduated from Meridian High School in 1953, attended Meridian Junior College, and earned a degree in agronomy from Mississippi State University. As a student he played rhythm guitar and sang with Andy Anderson and the Rolling Stones, a Starkville band which formed in 1955 and was later inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. He joined Andy Anderson, Joe Tubb, and "Cuz" Covington in the Mississippi Air National Guard and played with them in San Antonio in the summer of 1958 when "Johnny Valentine" was a local hit.

He began his career as a poultry inspector with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and later worked in entomology until his retirement in 1991.

After retirement, he wrote for Outdoor Life and other national magazines and became a member of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association. He was outdoors editor of The Meridian Star until July 2019. Readers knew him as a lifelong hunter and fisherman, especially for turkeys, and as a writer who could make a ridge at daylight feel like a place they had stood.

He published two books, Spring Beckoning's and Where We Belong, both of which focus on outdoor life and turkey hunting.

He is survived by his son, John L. Barham and his wife, Melissa K Barham; his grandsons, John Logan Barham and his wife, Reagan, and Jennings Lewis Barham; sisters-in-law, Carol Barham and Janet Barham; nephews and nieces, Kathleen Sims, Rob Barham, Winston Barham, Michael Barham, Rachel Rogers, and her husband, James; a grandnephew, Sawyer Barham; and grandniece, Aleia Barham; as well as several beloved cousins.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Lurey Barham; brothers, Ron Barham and Robert Barham; sister, Marge Sims, mother, Bertha Waltman Barham, and father, Otha Herman Barham.

The Barham Family suggests memorials be made as donations to Hope Outdoors in lieu of flowers.