Joel Alexander White
Joel Alexander White was born on November 10, 1984, in Memphis, Tn., and passed away in a motorcycle accident on January 15, 2022, in Alameda, Ca.
Joel’s early years were spent among a large extended family in Senatobia, Ms., before moving to Lookout Mountain, Tn., in 1991. Joel graduated from McCallie School in 2003, attended Belmont University in Nashville, TN, and graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2008. While attending UTC, Joel worked at a local book store, hosted a late night radio program on WUTC and played music with his band Forest Magic and other friends at various venues around Chattanooga.
Joel moved to Oakland, Ca., in 2010, quickly found employment at Mama’s Royal Cafe and began exploring the opportunities in the local film industry, an interest he had developed at an early age. In his pursuit, Joel wrote a letter to an older unknown McCallie alumnus working as an independent film editor in Oakland, who forwarded his letter to the owner of a video production company in San Francisco, Ca. On the strength of that letter and the following interview, Joel obtained an internship at Remedy Editorial and over a period of years worked his way up to senior editor. Joel’s pre and post production work at Remedy provided him the opportunity to travel to many places around the world including Singapore, Bali, Hong Kong, Hawaii, and Austria.
Although he had little spare time away from work, Joel rented a “band space” and encouraged friends to gather and play music. Joel did not own an automobile, choosing to ride his bicycle and later, his two motorcycles, around the East Bay area, San Francisco, and along the Pacific coast, often with his friends. Joel loved the diversity of California: the ocean, mountains, forests, food, customs, language, and especially its people.
Joel was a kind, creative, funny, intelligent, thoughtful, and sensitive young man, a good man, and he loved nice people. After several years of working at Remedy, Joel had the occasion to stop back by Mama’s Royal Cafe for breakfast, where several of the waitresses gave him a hug and two of the older men cooking in the kitchen came out from behind the counter, wiping their hands on their aprons, to shake his hand. As the founder and owner of Remedy Editorial shared, “To say that Joel touched the lives of many people in our community is an understatement. He is beloved by hundreds of colleagues and friends. For our Remedy family, Joel was our center, our moral compass.” Friends described Joel “as a creative, cook, cinephile, collaborator, and conversationalist. Joel cut out the bad and focused on bringing good things together, adding flavor and spice to all of our lives.”
Joel is survived by his parents, Johnny and Ruth White of Lookout Mountain; his sister, Rachel White, her husband Jay Miller, and their son Campbell of Birmingham; his grandmother, Joyce Roseborough White of Memphis; his aunts Maryelinor Mays of Lookout Mountain; Grace Thompson of Princeton, N.J.; Joyce Bobo and Emily (Charlie) Lowrance of Memphis; his uncle William Gordon of Shreveport, La., and many close cousins from coast to coast and in between.
Joel was preceded in death by his grandmothers Mary Elinor Gordon and Dean S. Gordon, and grandfathers John Gordon and Johnny White, Sr., all of Memphis.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 18, at 2 p.m. at the Church of the Good Shepherd at 211 Franklin Road, Lookout Mountain, Tn. 37350. There will be a reception following the service at the adjoining Parish Hall.