James Clifton

James Theodore Clifton was born on November 18, 1934.  His parents are Joseph Kirk Clifton and Jerome Katherine Panty Clifton.  Jim has a twin sister Betty Clifton Murphree and four other sisters:  Marie Clifton Moody (deceased), Norma Jo Clifton McKinney (deceased),  Virginia Clifton Wyatt (deceased), and Dorothy Clifton Giles.  The Clifton children grew up on a cattle farm in Autaugaville, Alabama between Prattville and Selma.

Jim completed Hicks Memorial High School in 1953 and graduated from Auburn University.  He spent the summers as a forest ranger in Idaho during University.  Jim wrote poetry, music and song lyrics.  He also danced ballet and modern dance and played the fiddle/violin.

While serving in the Army in Frankfurt Germany Jim learned German and participated on the cross country running team.

Jim married Margaret Murrell Traywick in September 1961.  The couple have three children: Dr. Jeffrey James Clifton (October 1962), Edwina Clifton Rogers (May 1964) and Evelyn Clifton DeBardelaben (May 1965).

Jim was an inventor and a talented commercial and residential builder.

Jim passed away on August 6, 2020 of COVID-19 complications in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Jim’s remains will be laid to rest in the Clifton Family plot in the New Live Oak Cemetery in Selma Alabama on February 27 at 2 pm with Lawrence Brown-Service Funeral Home directing.

Jim is survived by his former wife Margaret Traywick Clifton, two sisters Betty Clifton Murpheree and Dorothy Clifton Giles, his three children, six grandchildren (Zachary Clifton, Emily Clifton, Olivia Clifton, Hal Rogers, Sabra Rogers and Robert “Cole” DeBardelaben and one great grandchild named Edward James Clifton.