BROOKHAVEN — In the parking lot of Home Depot, Game Wardens with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks swore in a 15-year-old boy to join their ranks Sunday morning. Ashton Kemp was given a game warden’s hat, jacket, badge and an arrowhead as one of his last wishes came true.
Copiah Wildlife Management Area manager Med Palmer pushed Kemp around in a wheelchair to a shady area to be sworn in.
Kemp was diagnosed with stage 4 genetic metastatic melanoma. He received the diagnosis when he was 13 and went through radiation, chemo and other medications. The family reports the cancer is terminal. A recent scan revealed Kemp had a few days left to live and a week if he was lucky.
A retired game warden told Kemp his badge number 529 was special. John David Southerland of Meadville previously wore the badge number 529 until he retired. He was known as “Tubb,” by his colleagues. Southerland died in 2020.
“He is smiling right now. He would have been here and been leading the charge,” a warden said. “He was a wonderful man and a Christian.”