Mary Ernestine West Gilliam
Published 5:00 am Friday, August 22, 2003
Services for Mary Ernestine West Gilliam of Bogue Chitto are 11a.m., Saturday, Aug. 23, at Harrigill Funeral Home Chapel withburial in Rosehill Cemetery.
Visitation is Friday from 5-8 p.m., at the funeral home.
Mrs. Gilliam, 92, died Aug. 21, 2003, at the home of Wendell andBurnita Thetford from heart failure. She was born in the PleasantHill community on Feb. 25, 1911, to Ernest J. and Mary BailessWest.
She was a graduate of Copiah-Lincoln Junior College, and workedas a teacher for one year, and at Stahl-Urban Garment Factory andJ.C. Penney Co. After marrying John H. Gilliam on Nov. 25, 1941,they were stationed in Mississippi, California, North Caroline andSouth Carolina. In South Carolina, she was active in the BeaufortBaptist Church, and after moving to Brookhaven in 1980, was activein the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church.
Preceding her in death were her husband; her parents; threebrothers, Cardera L. West, Clyde Carroll West and Johnnie ClaudeWest; and a sister-in-law, Elsie West.
Survivors are her sisters and brothers-in-law, Burnita WestSmith Thetford and her husband, Wendell, of Bogue Chitto, and VelmaWest Bankston, and her husband, Ray, of Hermitage, Tenn.; herbrother, Marion Delma West of Hazlehurst; her sister-in-law,Margaret Gilliam of Covington, La.; and 11 nieces and nephews.
Memorials may be made to Mt. Moriah Baptist Church BuildingFund, 814 Marwood Loop SE, Bogue Chitto, MS 39629, or SouthMississippi Home Health Care and Hospice Foundation, HospiceDivision, P.O. box 15788, Hattiesburg, MS 39404.
Pallbearers are Marvin White, Korey White, David Nichols, WayneThetford, Jessie Vernon Pierce and John T. Smith.