There will be tributes written — perhaps even prose and verses penned; memories recounted through social media, late night group texts, and phone calls with old friends that, while well-intentioned as they are, will fall short of our collective goal to appropriately and sufficiently express the immense sorrow, struggle, ache, and grief we feel as we announce the passing of Michael Brad Heifner on Friday, May 2, 2025.
Other tributes — poems, songs, memories, and more — will attempt to share the fullness of our gratitude; our love; the collective and also very personal joy we feel simply because we knew him. Those sentiments will also pale, because there are no words. No amount of lauds, praises, inside jokes, or age-old phrases that can fully capture it — the sorrow and the joy.
We will try to recount the depth of Brad’s love for people — all people — his people — and we will fail. We will attempt to mimic his laugh — the way he would “haaaaaw” or “he-heeeee” at the end of a chuckle, but we won’t do that justice either. We’ll never be able to match his obsession for talking politics or watching the pink-wigged Jan Crouch and her hair-sprayed husband Paul, on TBN while waiting for Bill and Gloria Gaither to sing “Because He Lives” or “There’s Something About That Name.”
Brad was raised just a smidge East of Nashville, Tennessee; he was schooled at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama; and he lived the better part of the last two decades in Little Rock, Arkansas, so none of us will ever be able to adequately describe or explain his love for Plain Dealing, Louisiana. The place his kinfolk lived. The place his parents grew up. The place he would talk about in great, Huck Finnian detail, “where we had free lease to roam and fish and ride horses and drive tractors and eat catfish all summer.” He would recall the complete doting on each of his brothers and their cousins by their grandparents. “We could walk to town from their home and each get an ice cold RC Cola and peanuts multiple times a day.” Life was simple there.
Brad loved simple things. He loved real, true, genuine, heartfelt things. He loved great stories and could tell and re-tell them better than most. He loved most music, but especially songs that pined on about or celebrated the things he held most dear: family, Jesus, justice, love, and cream of mushroom-based casseroles.
He loved his friends — always opting to hear about and celebrate their lives rather than talk about his own. Except when it came to his kids. Brad would go on and on about Cash and Lilly. He was so proud. So enamored. So astounded that he could have been a part of creating something so beautiful, so remarkable, so perfect. He loved Dana and Jenna. He loved his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Fred Heifner, and was quick to share his respect for them — their faith, their marriage, their love for him and others.
And his brothers.
Of all the many relationships Brad held dear, there was none like the one with his brothers. The three of them knit together to create a bond that now extends to the light eternal.
No, our words will never be able to fully capture those things — the relationships, feelings, experiences, memories, and our minds’ meanderings about Brad Heifner — but that’s OK. Those things will outlive us all. They are all a part of something much more meaningful than space and time.
They are all examples that joy really does follow sorrow, and if we are to believe what Brad so deeply believed while he was here with us, then we know that his joy — his true and perfect joy — is happening right now as his suffering from the things of this world are no longer and he is finally resting in the infinite and eternal Love of God.
Brad is survived by his children Cash and Lilly Heifner and Jenna Sullivan; his parents, Dr. Fred Heifner and Joann Heifner; brothers, Kevin (Angie) and Todd (Amanda Hiley); nephews John, Graham, Atticus and Deason Heifner; cousins Tray Kimball, Caroline Heifner Murray, Marna Shipp Chester, Phil Heifner, Jason Vaughan; aunts and uncles Tom Heifner and Arlene Shaheen, Paula Heifner, Carolyn Kimball, Debbie Vaughan; his friend Alice Mason who has been so generous to Brad through the years, and so many more friends and family members too numerous to count, but all beloved by their Brad.
A visitation and memorial service for our father, son, brother, uncle, nephew, and friend, Michael Brad Heifner, will be held at New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Arkansas on Saturday, May 10, 2025. Visitation begins at 10:00 AM Central Time with service immediately following at 11:00 AM Central.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Brad’s honor be made to the Heifner Family Endowed Scholarship at Cumberland University (https://raisedonors.com/cumberlanduniversity/give-beyond-at-cumberland-university) or to Adopt-A-Stray Rescue (adoptastrayrescue.org) which was so special to Brad, or to another charity of your choice.
Arrangements by A Natural State Funeral Service 2620 West Main Street, Jacksonville, Arkansas 72076. 501-982-3400. Online guestbook available at www.anaturalstatefuneralservice.com
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Kevin, I was saddened to read about your brother’s passing. My prayers are for you and all Brad’s family. A well-written tribute.
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