James Stephen Turner

James Stephen Turner died on February 11, 2025. He was 77.

He is survived by his son Jay and Jay’s wife Christi, grandchildren Katherine and Stephen, brother Cal Turner, Jr., as well as a multitude of nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents Cal and Laura Katherine Turner, his wife Judy Turner, his daughter Laura Anne and by his sisters Laura Jo Dugas and Betty Turner Campbell.

Steve grew up in Scottsville, Kentucky, the youngest member of the founding family of Dollar General. He always appreciated the innocent nature of his small-town upbringing, marveling at how neighbors and friends looked after one another unconditionally and unprompted, a value which would inspire Steve to have a committed heart for helping his fellow man his entire life. 

A romantic in many ways, Steve found the love of his life, his wife Judy, at an early age, asking her out on their first date before he even had his driver’s license. Judy and Steve knew from the beginning that theirs was a match of destiny, nurtured at a time when the simple pleasure of somebody's companionship was enough entertainment.

A veteran of the United States Army, Steve was proud of his military service and placed a high value on what the experience meant to him personally -- how to make yourself as valuable as you possibly can in whatever position you are in, and to do so humbly.

After serving in the Army, Steve’s career trajectory started at Dollar General, and continued at Farmers National Bank in Scottsville. The greatest legacy of his adult life, however, was the imprint he made on downtown Nashville. 

Soon after Judy and Steve moved to Nashville in 1986, Steve was drawn to a dream of living downtown “above the shop as they do in Europe.” Challenging the pursuit of that dream, however, was that downtown Nashville was nearly abandoned, and no zoning existed which would allow for the mixed-use building Steve proposed. 

With Judy’s unconditional support, Steve pursued his passion for living downtown with a missionary zeal, characterizing it as only Steve could in recalling, “When we moved downtown, Nashville was like a donut with a big hole in the middle. I wanted to help turn the city into a Danish, where the sweet stuff is in the center.”

Creative, gracious, intelligent and loyal beyond measure, perhaps Steve’s most exceptional quality was his capacity to see things that others simply could not imagine. Nowhere was it more evident than when Steve set aside enormous personal risk and envisioned how a neglected brown field could become a thriving neighborhood where people live, work and play in harmony. The success of The Gulch was so remarkable that it served as the spark which emboldened the unprecedented development of the core of Music City. 

Steve’s civic engagement extended to leadership roles with many of Nashville’s leading institutions. A passionate supporter of the arts, Steve served for many years as the chairman of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. He was also a former board member of the Frist Art Museum and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. While serving on the board of the Nashville Symphony, Steve chaired the Building Committee for the Schermerhorn Symphony Center which houses the concert hall named for his mother, Laura Turner. 

In addition, Steve served as a member of the Board of Trust of Vanderbilt University, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Cumberland Region Tomorrow and the Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee. 

Never one to boast about his philanthropy, Steve took great pride in how three generations of his family collaborated with one another as stewards of the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation. Inheriting the mantle of leadership from Judy and Steve, the next generations –Christi, Jay, Katherine and Stephen -- are establishing a new legacy for the family’s philanthropy, following the example profoundly set by Judy and Steve. 

Judy and Steve’s life was altered forever when Judy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Over the years the toll the disease took on both Judy and Steve was unrelenting and harsh, making it difficult at first then impossible for them to serve the role of hosts they had assumed so effortlessly together. 

Yet, while that fate would have toppled others, Steve always found that his greatest comfort and peace was in being in Judy’s presence. Often times sitting with her, Steve would recite in his heart the lyrics of that classic Vince Gill song, 

Look at Us:

 Look at you still pretty as a picture

Look at me still crazy over you

Look at us still believing in forever

If you wanna see how true love should be then just look at us.

A student of history, Steve was taken by Jon Meacham’s eulogy of President George H. W. Bush when he quoted a letter from a young George H. W. Bush to his wife Barbara during World War II, “I love you, precious, with all my heart, and to know that you love me means my life.”

Visitation will be held at Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday, February 23, 2025 from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., followed by a celebration of Steve Turner's life starting at 3:00 p.m.