I’ve always felt compelled to use whatever recording device I had at hand to capture first-person stories about the past. Many years ago, Michelle and I were spending the night with my maternal grandparents, Guy Lovelace and Virginia Brantley Lovelace — we called them “Papaw and Granmama” — when I got the idea to record my grandmother as she went through her oldest photo album with us.
Although the quality of the video suffered because my grandfather was watching “The Price Is Right” at full volume and we were constantly asking questions, the recording remains valuable. It is wonderful to have her stories about the past, her identification of the people in the photographs and the opportunity to hear her sense of humor come shining through.
Four generations: My sister, Heather Williams Durham; my mother, Shirley Lovelace Williams; my great-grandmother, Allie Marbury Brantley; and my grandmother Virginia Brantley Lovelace.
Virginia Brantley Lovelace Obituary
My grandmother died in 2007. She had a stroke at home and then died a few days later at the hospital. Here is her obituary.
Mrs. Virginia Brantley Lovelace, age 90, entered into her heavenly home on Saturday, December 8, 2007 at Baptist Hospital Collierville. Mrs. Lovelace died from complications of a stroke.
She was born October 10, 1917 to William Day and Allie Marbury Brantley in the Cobb Switch community of Haywood County. She attended Centerville School and Haywood High School. On December 20, 1935 she married Guy Clinton Lovelace of the Zion Community. Mrs. Lovelace attended beauty school in Jackson, Tennessee and then worked as a beautician in Brownsville, Tennessee at Olive’s Beauty Shop. Later in life Mrs. Lovelace worked as a teacher’s assistant at the Holly Grove Elementary School and Haywood Elementary School until she retired in 1988. Mrs. Lovelace was an active church worker throughout her life. She taught Primary Sunday School class, Sunbeams, Vacation Bible School, GAS, and was active in Women’s Missionary Union.
Guy and Virginia Lovelace with children Bill, Bobby, Shirley, Darlene and Dawn
Mrs. Lovelace was preceded in death by an infant son in 1938, her parents, William Day and Allie Marbury Brantley, her husband, Guy Clinton Lovelace, her two sisters, Betty Sullivan and Cordelia Jacocks and her great-grandson, Jacob Durham.
She is survived by five children, Bobby Lovelace (Sherry) of Memphis, TN, Shirley Williams (Bob) of Oakland, TN, Bill Lovelace (Sara) of Jackson, TN, Darlene Bell (Mike) of Greenville, IN, and Dawn Chastain (Ron) of Memphis, TN. She also leaves thirteen grandchildren, Pam Lloyd of Coldwater, MS, Shelia Cresswell and Steve Lovelace, Memphis, TN, Scott Williams of Memphis, TN, Heather Durham of Collierville, Zach Lovelace of Jackson, TN, Rachael Greenway of Jackson, TN, Celeste, Clinton and Courtney Bell of Greenville, IN, PVT Sam Chastain of Camp LeJeune, NC and Nat and Micah Chastain of Memphis, TN. She also leaves behind eleven great grandchildren and several great-great grandchildren.
My grandmother’s testimony written in 2000.
Funeral services will be conducted at 2:00 P.M., Tuesday, December 11, 2007 in the Brownsville Funeral Home Chapel with burial following in Zion Baptist Church Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Zion Baptist Church Cemetery Fund or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
A page from another one of my grandmother’s many photo albums. That’s me in the upper right corner. We traveled with my grandparents quite a bit, so this was evidently on one of our family trips.
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
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