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Obit – Mr. Jacky O. Bellar

Mr. Jacky O. Bellar,

Well known Carthage Attorney and senior partner in the Bellar and Winkler law firm, Mr. Jacky O. Bellar of Gordonsville, died at the age of 83 at 8:40 a.m. Monday morning March 12, 2021 at the Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital where he was admitted April 2nd being treated for sepsis. Mr. Bellar had been dealing with failing health for several weeks and had been a practicing attorney for almost fifty nine years.

Mr. Bellar’s son, Chaplain Aaron Bellar assisted by Bro. Dickie Johnson, officiated at the 3 p.m. Friday afternoon April 16th funeral services which were conducted from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Burial followed in the Bellar family lot at the Gordonsville Cemetery.

Born Jacky Orange Bellar in the Stonewall Community on February 8, 1938, he was one of three sons and a daughter born to the late Henry Robin Bellar who died in February of 1992 at the age of 82 and the late Era Mae Orange Bellar who died in March of 1981 at the age of 69.

His sister, Shirley Bellar Jones, died at the age of 81 on February 9, 2016 and his brother Charles Ronald “Ronnie” Bellar died at the age of 79 on May 14, 2020.

Mr. Bellar was a 1956 graduate of Gordonsville High School, attended Tennessee Polytechnic Institute (now Tennessee Technological University) for three years and received his Bachelor of Law Degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on June 3, 1962.

While at U. T. Knoxville he was President of Phi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity.

On July 28, 1962 the Supreme Court of the State of Tennessee, Board of Law Examiners, granted him a license to practice law in all courts in the State of Tennessee.

His first employment was Assistant District Attorney General for the State of Tennessee for the Fifth Judicial Circuit which covered all the way to Crossville at that time.

He served as Carthage City Judge in his early legal career and was a former chairman of the Smith County Democratic Party.

He served as attorney for Smith County government for over fifty years until 2014.

He had been legal counsel for several lending institutions in Smith and adjoining counties and has served as legal counsel for the Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation for forty six years beginning on September 25, 1975.

For over fifty one years he represented the Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance Co. for litigated cases involving the Smith County Farm Bureau and also was counsel for the Cincinnati Insurance Co. cases in Smith County and surrounding counties for several years.

At the time of his death in addition to U.C.E.M.C. he also served as the Smith County School Board attorney for over forty years.

He was instrumental in the establishment of the Smith County Chamber of Commerce, serving as the organizations President in 1977 and was a longtime member of the Carthage Lions Club

Mr. Bellar was a member of the Carthage United Methodist Church and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.

He served as Chairman of the Board of the former Smith County Savings and Loan Association Inc. from 1975 through 1977.

Mr. Bellar proudly served our country with the United States Army being inducted January 1, 1963 and was honorably with the rank of 1st Lieutenant at Fort Jackson, South Carolina on December 31, 1964. During his military service he was specifically trained in Military Justice and Military Code of Conduct.

Surviving are his four children; son, Smith County Commissioner and member of the budget and finance committee, Timothy S. Bellar and wife Suzanne Young Bellar of the Chestnut Mound Community, daughter, Kelly Bellar Goodman of the Stonewall Community, son, Smith County General Sessions Judge and Carthage attorney, Jack Branden Bellar and wife Kara Everett Bellar of Gordonsville, son, Aaron Bellar and wife Angela Sessions Bellar of New Orleans, Louisiana; brother, Jerry Bellar and wife Jackie of Nashville; nine grandchildren, Logan Brentley Bellar, Robin Anderson Bellar, Hannah Elizabeth Bush, John Daniel Bellar, Joshua Paul Bellar, Emily Chase, Blake Howell, Jacob Patrick Bellar, Abigayle Grace Bellar; four great-grandchildren, Madison Webb, October Bellar, Analeigh Smith and Nicholas Smith.

The Bellar family has requested memorials to the U. C. E. M. C. Cares.

SANDERSON of CARTHAGE