Family and friends mourn beloved Ocean Springs man killed in crash. ‘You could count on him’

He could make anyone smile. And after his tragic death in a car crash on Interstate 10 last month, memories of Shelton Tillery still make his parents laugh, even in grief.

“We just don’t understand why,” Frank Tillery said of his son’s death, when his Ford Mustang spun across the grass median in heavy rain, then collided with another car.

But like their son, Frank and Mandy Tillery are strong in their faith. And so even though their hearts have broken, they are honoring his life and remembering the good.

“He was really able, in a short time, to have an impact,” his father said.

“He was always just a good kid,” said the Rev. Tommy Temple, who officiated a funeral so full of loved ones that dozens stood outside the church’s doors. “You could count on him.”

At 28, Shelton Tillery seemed destined for great things. He grew up in a small town near Starkville, graduated from Mississippi State and Ole Miss and negotiated contracts for the Navy in Ocean Springs. He was smart. He had a masters in business, worked so hard and was so liked, his boss, Philip Killingsworth said, that “the sky was the limit with him. He would’ve done really well.”

He was fit and joyful. He inspired people around the office with his commitment to exercise and health, Killingsworth said. His parents said he played high school football, baseball and basketball in his youth before he finally had to give one sport up.

He called his mother every day. He would never tell his parents a woman’s name, they said, unless he thought she could be the one. And he was so careful a driver, his parents said, that he would hit his blinker to turn into their driveway on a country road that barely ever sees another car.

On the day he died, he was wearing a seat belt and in no hurry, his parents said. He was on the way to replace his Mustang with a new truck.

Mostly, the people who loved him remember his humor and faith.

“His wit was quick,” his father said. “He could come back and get you on something in a heartbeat.”

He was deeply committed to God. He would sit on the back porch in the mornings and do Bible study, his parents said. He loved theology radio programs and worked with teenagers who saw him as a role model at church in Ocean Springs.

He was an only child, but grew up surrounded by family and friends who his parents said became like his brothers and sisters. In Ocean Springs, they said, he would go to Government Street with his friends and sit there joking and laughing all night long, never finishing his first beer.

“He was just as much fun,” his father said. “He’d still be acting like a moron.”

“He was a breath of fresh air,” said Bailey White, who spent days at the pool, at baseball games or planning road trips with Shelton ever since they met in March. Now, she said she still picks up the phone to call him, then realizes she cannot.

“It breaks my heart,” she said. “I wish more people could be like him.”

The outpouring from the Coast has surprised his parents, who did not know how many people their son touched because they said he was not one to brag.

At least 20 people turned out one morning last month to help them pack away their son’s home in Ocean Springs, they said. They praised law enforcement on the Coast as kind, understanding and patient. They said an officer first to the scene of the crash stayed there, and held their son’s hand.

Co-workers collected more than $1,000 for his home church in Maben, Mississippi, so it could send young people to summer camp on his behalf.

The support, his mother, Mandy Tillery, said, is “just another example of how the Lord puts the right people in the right place.”

“He really was on the right track,” his father said. “He was going to go straight to the top.”

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