Remembering Howard Pickens, the first Mississippian to die from COVID
March 19th for the Pickens family will always be a day they will never forget. Howard Pickens, a husband, father, and community barber, was the first Mississippian to die from COVID.
Pickens, also known as Fade, only showed one symptom of COVID when he caught it. During the time, testing for COVID was only given if all the symptoms were shown.
Once Pickens ran a 104.5 fever, his wife, Brenda Pickens, brought him to the hospital where he got worse and ended up on a ventilator to help with his breathing.
Brenda could not visit him in the hospital during his battle with COVID and was not able to be with him physically when he died just four days after being hospitalized. “This loss is just not happening. He’s going to get up and come home and all this is going to be a bad dream and everything is going to be okay. A lot of denial was going on when I knew how bad it was. He was just all around a great guy. He loved me and loved his girls.”
After the death of her husband, Brenda took over her husband’s barber shop and the community was there to support her.
