Jerry Lelane Kirk, 86, of Brentwood, Tennessee, passed away Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at NHC Place at Cool Springs in Franklin. Born in Whitesburg, Tennessee, to Wright and Lochiel Kirk, Jerry graduated from Whitesburg High School and attended Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, before graduating from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a degree in journalism.
After a four-year enlistment as an Air Force information specialist that took him to Colorado Springs, Colorado, he returned to Tennessee and a newspaper career. In 1969, he was hired as informational representative for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and moved to Nashville, where he met Jane Downing. The two were married in September 1974 in Jane’s hometown of Pikeville, Tennessee. They welcomed their only child, son Chris, in 1983, and the Kirks settled in Brentwood a few years later.
Jerry cultivated an impressive career in journalism, especially in communicating about Tennessee’s agricultural heritage. After working at the Department of Agriculture, he joined the Advertising Department at Tennessee Farmers Cooperative in La Vergne as editor of the organization’s member publication, The Tennessee Cooperator. After a stint in the 1980s as editor of The Tennessee Magazine, member publication of the state’s electric cooperatives, he returned to the Cooperator in 1990. He retired as editor of The Cooperator in 2001 but still helped proofread the Co-op publication and The Tennessee Magazine as well as continuing his popular “As I Was Saying” column.
Jerry’s exemplary career in agricultural communications and journalism garnered praise and recognition from peers, readers, co-workers and professional organizations. He received the H.E. Klinefelter Award for lifetime achievement from the Cooperative Communicators Association in 1988, and in 2012, he was presented with the James B. Walker Cooperative Spirit Award, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative’s highest honor given an individual whose contributions have had positive and enduring impact on Tennessee’s farmers, the state’s agriculture and the cooperative system.
Outside of work, Jerry was steady, kind and personable. Dinner parties, day trips with church groups, weekends in Knoxville to cheer on his beloved Volunteers – he was always up for an adventure and didn’t take himself so seriously that he wouldn’t fully embrace a party theme. He took pride in the appearance of his home and yard, and he loved spending time outside where he and Jane enjoyed watching the wildlife or entertaining friends on their large screened-in porch.
Jerry was preceded in death by wife, Jane; brother, Wayne Kirk of Knoxville; and his parents and grandparents. He is survived by son, Chris; daughter-in-law, Anna; and granddaughters, Sloan and Caroline, of Brentwood; sister-in-law, Mary Kirk of Knoxville; and, like Jane, a good-time cohort so touched by the Kirks’ caring, fun-loving spirits that these dear friends were considered family.
In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate memorial donations to Christ United Methodist Church, 508 Franklin Road, Franklin, TN 37069. Please note in the memo line “Memorial for Jerry Kirk” so the family can extend their thanks.
Funeral services will be conducted at Christ United Methodist Church, 508 Franklin Road, Franklin, TN 37069, on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. Visitation will begin at 2:00 p.m. at the church. Burial will be on Friday, May 8, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at the Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery, 7931 McCrory Lane, Nashville TN 37221.
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