Obit – Mike Shoulders
Longtime Carthage businessman, former Smith County Commissioner and church clerk, Mike Shoulders, succumbed to a battle with cancer at 3:50 a.m. Tuesday morning August 22, 2023 at the Riverview Regional Medical Center in Carthage where he was admitted Monday afternoon August 21st. Mr. Shoulders was 65.
Funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home were conducted on Friday morning August 25th at 10 a.m. with Eld. Shawn Shepherd officiating assisted by Eld. Rickey Brooks. Burial followed in the Shoulders family lot in the Gazebo Gardens at the Dixon Springs Cemetery.
The Shoulders family received friends on Thursday from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. and on Friday after 8 a.m. until the 10 a.m. services at Sanderson in Carthage.
Born Michael Gene Shoulders in Nashville on September 5, 1957, he was the younger of two sons of Shirley Jean Shoulders of Carthage and the late Jack Douglas “Daddy Jack” Shoulders who died on October 22, 2016 at the age of 81, and was the former owner of Shoulders Wrecker Service and developer of the Kirkwood Estates in West Carthage.
In addition to his Father he was preceded in death by a sister-in-law, Vivian Lynn Sloan Jones who died at the age of 65 on January 3, 2021.
Graduating with the Smith County High School Class of 1975, Mr. Shoulders majored in Social Studies, Science and Music, participated in the fall festival and spring festival in his first three years at S.C.H.S. His senior year he served as the band Captain.
Following graduation from S.C.H.S. he received an Associate’s Degree in Communications from the Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin.
At the Pleasant Shade Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church on June 11, 1977, he was united in marriage to Pleasant Shade Community native, the former Jane Inez Jones. The ceremony was performed by Jane’s father, Eld. Charles Jones and then church pastor, Eld. Jake Collins.
He was saved at the age of 9 on July 16, 1968 at a revival meeting at the Maces Hill Missionary Baptist Church and was baptized into the full fellowship of the church by the late Eld. J.C. Austin. Until recently Mr. Shoulders served as the church clerk beginning in 2006.
He and his wife established the Shoulders Motor Co. in Carthage in 1983 and located it at the intersection of Dixon Springs Highway and Industrial Drive and in 1998 relocated to a newly constructed building on Dixon Springs Highway located on the Kirkwood Estates property.
Mr. and Mrs. Shoulders sold the business in the fall of 2022 due to Mr. Shoulders failing health.
Prior to opening Shoulders Motor Co., Mr. Shoulders was an announcer and disc jockey for the WRKM and WUCZ radio station in Carthage under the ownership of the late Reggie Honey.
He represented Tanglewood District 2 (as presently constituted) on the Smith County Quarterly Court and later the Smith County Commission for eight years.
Surviving in addition to his wife Jane, of over forty six years, and his mother, Shirley, are their two children, daughter, Erica Shoulders Goad and husband Jared of the Turkey Creek Community; son Jacky Shoulders and wife Vasi Cordova-Shoulders and their children, Olympia and Robby of Northbrook, Illinois; brother, Ricky Shoulders and wife Dianna Williams Shoulders of Carthage; brother-in-law, Anthony Jones of the Russell Hill Community.
The family requests memorials to the Maces Hill Missionary Baptist Church.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
