Michael William Yakstis

Michael William Yakstis, age 82, was born on July 21, 1943, in East St. Louis, Illinois, and passed away on January 30, 2026, at his home in Brandon, Mississippi.

Michael was raised in the Catholic Church and converted to the Methodist Denomination when he married in 1966. He served in many positions in the church but enjoyed teaching Bible study the best.

He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1961 to 1965 as an electronic technician on ground-to-air guidance systems. Later, he taught those systems to Air Force personnel in the Southeast United States from 1965 until 1970.

In 1970, he was employed with the Burroughs Corp. until 1985 as a mainframe computer technician until the company merged with Sperry, and Univac and became Unisys from 1985 to 1993 at which time he started his own computer company “Services International” from 1993 until 2000.

In 2001, he worked one year with Intel Corp. in Phoenix, Arizona in the manufacture of computer processor chips and retired in 2002.

He and wife Johnnie enjoyed 59 years together living in Mobile, Alabama, Laurel, Mississippi, Crystal Springs, Mississippi, and Brandon, Mississippi.

Michael was preceded in death by his parents, William and Catherine Yakstis, brother William Yakstis (Bill), and sister Mary Yakstis.

The joy of Michael’s life was his wife Johnnie Lou, son Michael (Debbie), daughter Loraine Catherine (Kevin) and his three granddaughters Maggie Michael Yakstis, Matalyn and Charlotte Thornton.

Visitation will be held Friday, February 6 at 12pm at Ott & Lee Funeral Home in Brandon, Mississippi with services following at 2pm.

Interment at Crestview Memorial Gardens at 1106 Star Road.

In lieu of flowers please make memorials to Saint Mark’s United Methodist Church

400 Grants Ferry Road

Brandon, Mississippi 39047

info@saintmarksum.org

(601) 992-2131