Obituaries 9-25-12

Published 12:00 am Friday, September 28, 2012

BATESVILLE –  Gloria Dean Forest, 57, died Monday, September 17, 2012.

Graveside services were held Thursday at Rodgers Funeral Home. Burial was in Second Baptist Church Cemetery in Coldwater. Rodgers Funeral Home had charge.

Survivors include: three sisters, Josephine Moore, Rosie Young and Ella Mae Forest, all of Coldwater; five brothers, Willie Forest Jr., George Forest, Stanley Forest and Richard Forest, all of Coldwater and Joe Ramsey of Memphis.

SARDIS –  Eugene Keys, 88, died Saturday, September 15,  2012.

Services were held Saturday at Morris Chapel.  Burial was in Ballentine Cemetery. Felix Cauthen Funeral Home had charge.

Keys was a construction worker.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Mitilda Keys.

Survivors include: one daughter, Georgia Bernice Jackson of Sardis; four sons, Charles Keys, Eugene Keys and John Willie Keys, all of Sardis and Bobby Keys of Milwaukee; 24 grandchildren; 62 great-grandchildren and 22 great-great-grandchildren.

 HOLLY SPRINGS – Sadie B. Newson, widow of Baby B. Newson, died Saturday, September 8, 2012. She was 85.

Services were held at Thyatira Church of Christ in Senatobia Saturday, September 15 with burial in Carter Memorial Cemetery in Senatobia.  Rodgers Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

Survivors include three daughters, Jenett Newson and Isabella Jones, both of Holly Springs and Vanessa Ward of Senatobia; six sons, Eddie B. Newson of Holly Springs, Willie B. Newson of Byhalia, Robert Lee Newson of Columbia, Mo., Lavern Newson of Como, Sylvester Wooten and Vinson Porter, both of Senatobia; 40 grandchildren; 38 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.    

SOUTHAVEN-  Bertha L. Baptist Sanford, 101, formerly of Panola County, and widow of Freddie Sanford died Wednesday, Sept. 19 at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis.

A former teacher and principal, she became one of Panola County’s first black residents to register to vote following the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1964.

She earned her teaching certificate from Mississippi Industrial College in Holly Springs and taught school before marrying and helping manage the family farm near Como while raising seven children, all who went to college.

She is survived by three sons, Freddie Sanford Jr., of Mitchellville, Md., Louis Sanford of Chicago, and Otis L. Sanford of Memphis; and four daughters, Doris Reed of Chicago, Everlyn Johnson of Starkville, Anner Doss and Mattie McSwine, both of Memphis. She also is survived by 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

The funeral service was Monday at New Hope Baptist Church in Southaven. Burial was in Hammond Hill Church Cemetery in Senatobia. Felix Cauthen Funeral Home in Senatobia was in charge of arrangements.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Mid-South Food Bank, 239 South Dudley St., Memphis; Her Faith Ministries, which will benefit homeless women and children, 3396 Park Ave., Memphis, Tenn.; or the Freddie and Bertha Sanford Scholarship at Northwest Mississippi Community College, 4975 Highway 51 N., Senatobia, Miss.