PLANTERSVILLE • Since childhood, music and service have been part of Plantersville Mayor Shelton Shannon’s life.
Growing up in Plantersville, Shannon developed an interest in music at an early age. His mother, Lavada Shannon, saw that their church, New Zion Baptist Church, was without a musician. A fellow member donated a piano to his mother on one condition:
“She asked my mother, if she gave her a piano, would she make sure the church would have a musician in there, since I showed music talent,” Shannon said.
Alongside his sister, 14-year-old Shannon began taking lessons under the tutelage of the late Lula Bell Foster. Within a year, he was playing. It was the beginning of a lifetime of musicianship.
Shannon comes from a working class family and grew up with little wiggle room in the budget. His father, the late Sanders Shannon, only had a third grade education.
Despite the hardships they faced, the Shannon family got by.
“We farmed very little, but we had three meals per day,” Shannon said. “It was not exactly what we wanted, but we didn’t have much of a choice.”
Shannon was a student at George Washington Carver High School when Mississippi’s schools integrated and graduated from Tupelo High School in 1972. While there, he got involved with extracurricular activities like basketball and school musicals.
Still, Shannon said the transition was hard.
“Mother told us, ‘Go ahead on, get your education and people cannot hold you back if you make sure you keep God in front,’” Shannon said. “And we succeeded, and I succeeded with that.”
Shannon said he is especially grateful to his former principal and friend Maldon Griffin for ensuring students like himself were treated fairly after integration. He was honored when Griffin asked him if he would play for his funeral services, which he did.
“Mr. Griffin thought the world of me, and I thought the world of him,” Shannon said. “He made integration at that time, transition real good.”
After graduating high school, Shannon enrolled at Itawamba Community College and later Mississippi State University for a degree in music education, with an emphasis in piano.
Shannon has played for 55 years as New Zion Baptist Church’s pianist and music director. Even with all those years, members still smile and joke with him, and seem appreciative of his work.
Although it can be tiresome leading multiple choirs and keeping up with trends in music, Shannon still finds joy in performing. He knows music’s power to soothe the soul.
“It’s a language that, if people allow it to happen, it can speak to you, whether it’s good or bad,” Shannon said. “It’s soothing to me, and it’s a universal language.”
Shannon also worked as a 4-H agent with the Mississippi State Extension Service for over three decades. Shannon spent another decade as the director of the Lee County Multi-Purpose Center for the Elderly. Within his role, he oversaw the Tupelo location and satellite centers in Saltillo, Verona and Pratts.
The center was open five days a week and served 100 to 110 people per day. A few of the center’s services included busing people daily; serving meals; taking clients shopping, to appointments or on tours; offering art and celebrating holidays. He retired approximately six years ago at age 63.
Shannon served as Alderman for the Town of Plantersville after winning a 2014 special election. He ran after encouragement from people in the community. When the next election cycle came in 2017, he ran for mayor.
Shannon said people seemed to want a change.
“They must have had a lot of respect for me, know that I’d try to be honest and do the right thing. That’s the reason I got into politics,” Shannon said.
As mayor, Shannon hopes to make his hometown more financially substantial and attract more businesses in Plantersville. His priorities include improving road conditions and boosting the income levels of the town’s families.
Family remains important to Shannon. His mother, now 91, was a tremendous influence on his life. He’s grateful for his wife of 43 years, Karen Cobb Shannon of Blue Springs, their two sons, Emery Shannon and Sherrod Shannon, and — most of all — his five grandchildren: Emery III; Landon; Braden; Sherrod II and Ean Shannon.
In 2019, Shannon received the Committee for King’s prestigious Drum Major Award for his lifelong commitment to leadership. The award is presented annually to an individual who represents Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy by example.
For Shannon, the award reinforces that he’s lived his life according to his personal philosophy: “What you dish out is what you get.”
“You are a servant and not a boss,” he said. “You serve people and people will mostly likely work alongside with you. You’ve got to … love people, and people will return love. All of them are not going to do it, but the majority will.”
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