By By Connie Nowlin
Managing Editor
Atmore lost two people who had touched the lives of many of its residents.
John Clifton Mims died Friday after a long battle with lung cancer. He was a pharmacist and had lived his whole life in Atmore, with the exception of the time he spent in the Army.
According to his family, he always looked for the good in others and was never too busy to help anyone, whether he knew them on a personal or a professional level.
Besides a deep abiding love for his family and his God, Mims is remembered as a man who loved the outdoors. He was a hunter and woodsman, but he also devoted time to conservation and ornithology.
Mims served on the board of the Turtle Creek Environmental Center and shared his knowledge of birds and wildlife with others. He enjoyed gardening and travel and collected antiques, historical artifacts and arrowheads.
A graduate of Escambia County High School, he attended the Marion Military Institute, then transferred to the then-Howard College at Birmingham. He gave many years of service to the vestry at Trinity Episcopal Church and was active in the Atmore Historical Society and the Alabama Pharmacy Association. He served Atmore as a pharmacist for nearly 40 years.
Services were held June 10 at Trinity Episcopal, and he was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Also Friday, little James Austin Baker of Fairhope lost his fight with acute myeloid leukemia.
He had been diagnosed in autumn of 2002 and was treated at University of Alabama at Birmingham Children's Hospital.
Pepsi of Atmore held several fund-raising events to help with medical expenses.
Austin was the son of Rufus and Tina Morris Baker. The couple have a daughter, Meagan Elizabeth. His grandparents were Dr. Harold and Sherry Wilson of Atmore.