Jackie Brackman passed away peacefully in her sleep at Holbrook Woodstock early the morning of November 19, 2023. She was 78 years old.

Jackie was born to (Rev) Charles Jackson (Jack) Reaves Sr and Wanda Lee Reaves (Hill) on November 25, 1944, in Columbia, South Carolina. Her father had just returned from the Pacific Front after being severely injured when a Japanese Kamikaze pilot attacked the USS Henrico, on which he was a Warrant Officer.

Following his recovery, Jack Reaves and his family moved to Atlanta so that he could attend Emory University on the G.I. Bill. They bought a house in the Lake Claire area of Atlanta where Jackie and her younger brother, Chuck, grew up and attended school at Mary Lin Elementary in nearby Candler Park. Jackie relished this time during her childhood where she played in the neighborhood with the other kids and felt safe growing up in that part of east Atlanta. As a young teenager, Jackie remembers taking the streetcar downtown, shopping at Rich's, and eating at The Varsity. She also remembers frequent trips to Little Five Points where their family shopped for groceries and other household items.

Eventually, Jack Reaves graduated from Emory with B.A. and MDiv degrees and was assigned to the Forest Park Methodist Church as its pastor. Jackie started high school in Forest Park and eventually graduated from LaGrange High School in LaGrange Georgia in 1962. The next fall she matriculated to LaGrange College in the same city and majored in music, graduating in 1966.

Afterwards, Jackie moved to Atlanta to pursue a career in music and applied for several organist jobs in and around the city of Atlanta. During one interview, she met Reverend Julian Brackman, an Associate Pastor at Smyrna Methodist Church. Jackie and Julian married in April of 1968 (one day after MLK Jr's assassination). Years later, Mom's famous line about that interview with Dad was "I didn't get that job, but I got your father."

Building a life with a pastor after being the daughter of one was one that Jackie handled with perceived ease. She well-knew that Methodist pastors moved every 3-5 years, and she was always well-prepared for the upcoming garage sales, the packing of boxes, and the cleaning of parsonages, etc. at each stop. She and Julian started their life together at Smyrna Methodist Church. Soon after, they moved to Underwood United Methodist Church in the Home Park area of Atlanta where their first child Julian, Jr. (Jay) was born in 1970. In 1971, the family moved to Commerce, Georgia in north Georgia, and their second son, Joseph Emory (Joe) was born there in 1972. Pastorates in Augusta, Milledgeville, Conyers, Dunwoody, Douglasville, and Tucker followed, until Julian retired from the ministry in 1998.

While raising a family, Jackie was a homemaker for many years until she first became a music teacher in several schools (Atlanta City and Baldwin County schools) and later became a social studies teacher in middle schools in Rockdale, Gwinnett, Cobb, and Cherokee counties. A hardworking, humble teacher who rarely took credit for her accomplishments or abilities, Jackie was honored as Teacher of the Year during her last year of teaching at Woodstock Middle School in 2005.

In retirement together, Jackie and Julian started taking trips around the US and the world, mostly on cruises, some on which Julian was the Protestant Chaplain on the ship. They visited all 50 states more than once and did many river cruises in Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia. It seemed like they were always planning the next long cruise, and those trips provided them many years of anticipation and happiness.

At one point, Julian was asked to chaplain the Magellan Cruise- a cruise around the world that lasted 120+ days, and that was the one that Jackie put a stop to before it started. At the time, they had a beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel- "Ka-Cee", and Mom didn't want to spend 4 months away from their fur-baby. So, they missed Magellan's cruise, but were fortunately able to cruise these rivers, among others: the Nile, the Amazon, the Danube, the Mississippi, the Rhine, the Volga, the Seine, and the Yangtze.

Jackie and Julian had a vacation place north of Gatlinburg, Tennessee for many years and enjoyed going there, seeing their friends, and eating at the Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg every trip. Once Joe got married and had a family, Jackie and Julian also enjoyed visiting Joe's family in the Phoenix, Arizona area, including taking trips to different parts of Arizona to sightsee and be together as a family.

During her retirement years, Jackie spent a lot of her free time volunteering in the Woodstock, Georgia area. She happily gave time to the Baby Store (now Seeds) in Woodstock, sorting clothes for sale, helping young mothers install and use baby seats properly, and helping with the retail part of the business. She loved what the Baby Store stood for: protecting the unborn and supporting those mothers who had thought of abortion but were now having their babies with the support of that organization.

Jackie also helped other organizations with her musical skills. Several times she helped Saturday Nite Live at The Church of the Holy Comforter in the Ormewood Park neighborhood of Atlanta, she played the organ at many Methodist churches that needed a substitute organist, and several times she played piano or organ for funerals at Lakeside Funeral Home in Woodstock, the same place her own funeral will be held.

Jackie is survived by her husband of 55 years, Julian Hearn Brackman Sr.; her sons, Jay Brackman of Atlanta, Georgia; Joe Brackman of Chandler, Arizona (Jenny); four grandchildren (Clarissa, Elliot, Mikayla, and Aiden); one sister, Deanna Debe (Debe) Tanner (Perry) of Monroe, Georgia (Nick, Chris, and Becca); one brother, Charles Jackson (Chuck) Reaves Jr. (Sheri) of Phoenix, Arizona (Chip, Ty, Mandi); and many
other extended family members and friends.

A special thanks goes out to all the medical and support staff at both Holbook Woodstock's Memory Care Facility and Agape Hospice Care of Marietta, who both took great care of Jackie during the last months of her life. Each of the individuals on those teams treated her with dignity and love, even when she was sometimes unaware of their offerings.

Services for Jackie Brackman will be held on Monday, December 4, 2023, at 11am at Lakeside Funeral Home in Woodstock Georgia. The burial of her ashes will occur privately at Shiloh Cemetery (Burwell Community) in Carroll County, Georgia on the same date.