Gladys Crowell Davis of Batesville died Thursday, April 15, 2021, at her home after a long illness. She was 89.

Gladys was born August 10, 1931, in Crowder to the late Jewel Elizabeth Bynum and Ercel Weldon Bynum.

She was a homemaker and a seamstress. Gladys worked at Hancock Fabrics and as a substitute teacher for Batesville Elementary School.

She was a longtime member of Calvary Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School classes, Vacation Bible School and Training Union for many years. She was teaching the senior adult Sunday School class at the time she fell ill in March, 2020.

She leaves behind to mourn her two sons, Boyce Crowell Jr. (Temple), and Gary Wayne Crowell (Janet), all of Batesville; a daughter-in-law, Brenda Crowell; grandchildren Sara Jane Russell of Hernando, Dylan Crowell of Batesville, Dalton Crowell of Tupelo, Melody Pearson, of Batesville and Michelle Kuykendoll, of Denton Texas; and six great-grandchildren, as well as a sister Mary Avis Parker of Batesville.

She was pre-deceased by her late husband, House Davis; her former husband, Boyce Crowell Sr.; her son, Dennis Dale Crowell, her sister, Bertha Louise Melton, and her brother, Billy Weldon Bynum.

She leaves, as well, a host of good friends from her church and community, including the hundreds of people she saw regularly when she worked as a hostess at the Panola Country Club and at Western Sizzlin’ Steak House.

“Miss Gladys” was an avid reader. She went to the public library two to three times a week. She taught all three of her boys to love reading, and enjoyed reading to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She was also known for baking cookies or tea cakes as she called them; she would bake dozens of tea cakes weekly, and deliver them to friends, to doctors and to shut-ins who always looked forward to seeing her.

She served her church and Jesus with a passion, and loved her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren fiercely. She believed in memories; though she lived a fairly minimalist life, paying little attention to accumulating “stuff,” she saved photos, newspaper clippings, childhood drawings and all manner of school awards for each of her children and grandchildren.

Services were held Sunday, April 18, at Calvary Baptist Church.

The family asks that memorials be sent to Calvary Baptist Church, Batesville.