A Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023, at Holcomb United Methodist Church for Mary Loubena White, 96, of Holcomb, who died on Sunday, Sept. 10, at Azalea Commons in Cleveland where she had resided for the past 10 years.
Bena was born on April 29, 1927, in Eupora, the daughter of the late John Parkey and the late Gladys McMullen White. They had left their home in Heathman on the last train headed from the Delta to their family’s home in Eupora to escape the devastating Great Flood of 1927.
Bena grew up in Shaw and Louise, and graduated from high school in Louise in 1945. She attended Sunflower Junior College, Delta State University and received her bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University in 1952. In 1963, she also earned her master’s degree from Mississippi State. Bena’s 30-year teaching career included years in Schlater, Holcomb and 25 years in Grenada where she taught shorthand, bookkeeping and typing. She later served as the guidance counselor at Grenada High School and retired in 1979.
Bena enjoyed traveling, camping, sewing, fishing, gardening and spending time with her family and friends. She was a voracious reader and could always be found with a book or two, plus her Bible, beside her. She was a member of Holcomb United Methodist Church her entire adulthood and loved her church, her Bible study group and the endless stream of friends and neighbors who were always at her home.
Survivors include, her sister, Nancy White Gerrard of Cleveland; three nieces and a nephew, Jane Crump (Bill) of Schlater, John Gerrard (Ruth) of Springdale, Ariz., Mary Pritchard of Oxford and Betsy Gerrard of Palm Bay, Fla.; nine great nieces and nephews and 17 great-great nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be directed to Holcomb United Methodist Church or to the charity of the donor’s choice.
Online condolences can be expressed to the family at www.nfhgrenada.com
Mortimer National Funeral Home in Grenada is in charge of arrangements.
