Obits: ARE FREE and MUST come from the Mortuary, probate judge or company taking care of arrangements. Additional information (such as personal messages/thank you messages) will have to be charged. No Exceptions! Please email them to scrjmedia@yahoo.com or fax them to 205-652-4466. Cards of Thanks, personal family messages and photos must be paid for before they can run. Photos are $15.00 for each run with the obituary. Page updated on Thursdays.
Emma Winston Clark
Mrs. Emma Winston Clark passed away on April 4, 2026. Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, April 11, 2026, at 1 p.m. at Christian Valley Baptist Church, Coatopa, Alabama with Rev. Willie West officiating. Mrs. Clark will lie in state one hour at the church prior to the service. Burial will follow at Zion Hill Cemetery, Coatopa. Public viewing will be Friday, April 10, 2026, from 3-5 p.m. at the mortuary. Smith’s Mortuary extends our heartfelt condolences to the Clark family during this difficult time, May God grant you comfort, strength, and peace in the days ahead.
Johnny Roy Gibbs
Johnny Roy Gibbs, affectionately known by everyone as “Cookie Man” was born to the blessed union of the late Joe Gibbs and Freddie Mae Ivory Gibbs on December 29, 1948, in York, Sumter County. He transitioned to the Will of God April 1, 2026 at his Mobile residence surrounded by loving family. Church service of remembrance and life celebration is slated for Saturday, April 11, 2026, at 11 a.m. from Mt. Olive Baptist Church, 519 Third Avenue, Cuba, Ala. Apostle Juliette M. Marshall of the Shekinah International Worship Center, Mobile, will officiate. Rev. Jared Hill is pastor. Cookie Man will lie in repose one hour prior to funeral time. Interment and site of committal will follow in the Gibbs Family Cemetery, 5168 Sumter 27, Cuba, AL 36907. To his wife Helen Hearn Gibbs and the entire family, we at Weatherly Funeral Home offer to each of you our most sincere condolences and heartfelt sympathy. Our prayer remains that your abiding faith in God will lend to you a measure of comfort that will strengthen and sustain you during your time of most profound sorrow.
Calvin Hamilton
Mr. Calvin Hamilton, 74, of Whitfield passed March 29, 2026, at his home. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, April 11, 2026, at 11 a.m. at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Whitfield. Rev. Christopher Holcombe will officiate with burial in the church cemetery. Mr. Hamilton’s body will lie in state at the church from 10 a.m. until the service hour. Visitation will be held at Hardaway’s Funeral Services, Inc., located at 209 South Broad St., York, on Friday, April 10, 2026, from 4-6 p.m. Hardaway Funeral Services, hardawayfuneralservices.com, directing.
Douglas Jolly
Mr. Douglas Jolly of Boligee passed away on March 29, 2026. Funeral Services will be on Saturday, April 11, 2026, at 11 a.m. at Pine Grove CME Church in Boligee, Alabama with Dr. Servant Jerry Johnson Sr. officiating. Mr. Jolly will lie in state at the church one hour prior to the service. Burial will follow in the adjoining church cemetery. Smith’s Mortuary extends our heartfelt condolences to the Jolly family during this difficult time. May God, grant you comfort, strength, and peace in the days ahead.
Steven Marion Meredith
Steven Marion Meredith, 61, of Birmingham and Greensboro, passed away on March 31, 2026, after a brief illness. Funeral services will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greensboro on April 11, 2026, at 2 p.m. with a visitation to follow. He was preceded in death by his parents, Franklin and Marianne Meredith; his paternal grandparents, Franklin and Alice Meredith; and his maternal grandparents, James and Margaret Mann. He is survived by his sons, Grady Boyd Dumas Meredith and Franklin Weed Meredith, II, and their mother, Ashley Dumas, of Sumterville. He is also survived by his younger sister, Elizabeth Meredith, paternal uncle and aunt, Pete and Louise Meredith, and maternal uncle and aunt, Steve and Jennie Mann. He enjoyed keeping relationships with all of his cousins and was especially close with James Meredith and Sunny Shacoski. Born October 5, 1964, in Birmingham, Steven was destined to be an archaeologist. He loved investigating people of the past and sharing what he discovered with everyone. He was a 1983 graduate of Briarwood Christian School and attended Auburn University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in geology. He received a Master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Alabama. He was principal and owner of Cedars Consulting, LLC. Steven was an inordinately kind human being, an artist, and a poet. He loved his family, history, and the natural beauty of this earth. In lieu of flowers, donations are gratefully accepted by the Alabama Archaeological Society for the establishment of a scholarship fund in his memory.
Patricia Neal Lee Pearce
A celebration of life for Sister Patricia Neal Lee Pearce of Livingston, who passed away, Monday, March 23, 2026, were 11 a.m. Saturday, April 4, 2026, at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Whitfield. Rev. Christopher Holecome, church pastor. Rev. Robert Pearce, Jr. officiated. Interment followed in the adjoining Ebenezer Baptist Church Cemetery. Public viewing and visitation was Friday, April 3, 2026, at McInnis Mortuary, Livingston, she lay in state one hour prior to service time at the church. McInnis Mortuary of Livingston entrusted with all arrangements. The McInnis family along with the management and staff of McInnis Mortuary extend heartfelt and sincere sympathy to the entire bereaved Lee and Pearce family.
Eleanor Ennis Ward
“Little Grit” • “Gigi”
February 8, 1940 – April 1, 2026
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” — Proverbs 17:22
Eleanor Ennis Ward, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and devoted servant of the Lord, passed from this earth into the arms of her Savior on April 1, 2026, at the age of 86. Known to her grandchildren as “Gigi” and to those who knew her spirit as “Little Grit,” a nod to the indomitable nature she inherited from her father, Eleanor lived a life as wide open and full of wonder as the wild places she loved most. Born on February 8, 1940, Eleanor was the daughter of Richard Garrett Ennis, Jr. (known far and wide as “Grit”) and Eleanor Clark Coleman Ennis (“Miss Nell”), both of whom preceded her in death. She was raised with deep roots in the Southern soil, connected to a family legacy that stretched back six generations on the cherished Ennis family property. It is a place so woven into the family’s identity that it bears her father’s name to this day: “The Grits Place.” It was there that Eleanor’s love of the land was born, and it was there that she would spend a lifetime returning, always eager to share its gifts with everyone she loved. Life with her devoted husband, Donald James Ward, was nothing short of an adventure. Together they moved 25 times, living across the globe with highlights in Northern and Southern California, the breathtaking island of Palau, the paradise of Hawaii, a stint north of the border in Canada, and a memorable chapter as the beloved “southerner” in Northern New Jersey, a title she wore with pride and a smile. Through every address change and new horizon, Eleanor remained a constant: warm, rooted in faith, and always ready to find the beauty in her surroundings. The family eventually settled in North Carolina before Eleanor returned to her cherished childhood home in Livingston, Alabama, where she would spend her final years. Eleanor’s faith was the bedrock of her life. A devoted Christian, she was a faithful member of First Baptist Church in Livingston, Alabama, and carried treasured memories of her time worshipping at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Nobleton, Ontario, Jacksonville Chapel in New Jersey and Hickory Grove Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her faith was not a Sunday morning act; it was the lens through which she saw every sunrise over the tree line, every fish on the line, and every grandchild’s laugh. So deep was her calling to share the Gospel that she made multiple mission trips to China, carrying God’s Word across the world to those who had never heard it. She did not simply believe in the Great Commission; she lived it with her whole heart. A true free spirit and a cowboy at heart, Eleanor was never more alive than when she was outdoors. Hunting, fishing, and communing with wildlife were not merely hobbies; they were her language of love. As a sixth-generation steward of The Grits Place, she felt a sacred responsibility to pass on her passion for the natural world to every generation that followed. She was a teacher at heart, and the woods, the water, and the wildlife were her classroom. Whether she was teaching a grandchild to bait a hook, pointing out a bird call in the early morning stillness, or simply sitting in grateful quiet beneath an open sky, Eleanor made everyone around her feel the wonder of God’s creation. Few things lit Eleanor up quite like talking about her beloved horse, Emelle. She would tell tales of riding Emelle all across The Grits Place and through the countryside, free as the wind and right where she belonged. Those stories never got old to her, and she never stopped loving the life they represented. In fact, right up to her very last days, she was still telling her family she wanted two more horses and making sure everyone knew she expected them to be taken care of when she was gone. That was Eleanor. A true adventurer to the very end, with a heart as wide open as the pastures she rode. Eleanor is survived by her loving husband of 60 plus years, Donald James Ward; her son, Jonathan Garrett Ward; her daughter, Meredith Leigh Ward Bright; her grandsons, Austin Garrett Ward and Coleman James Ward; her granddaughter, Morgan Leigh Bright; and her sister, Sarah Coleman Ennis McGahey. She was preceded in death by her father, Richard Garrett Ennis Jr. (“Grit”), and her mother, Eleanor Clark Coleman Ennis (“Miss Nell”). In keeping with Eleanor’s free and joyful spirit, the family has chosen to forgo a traditional viewing or funeral service. Instead, they invite all who loved her to come together and celebrate her life the way she would have wanted. A celebration of life luncheon will be held on September 6, 2026, in Livingston, on the grounds of her beloved Grits Place property. Come ready to share a meal, swap a story, and raise a smile in her honor. Details to follow. If you would like to be added to future communications regarding this event, please email rcarter@wardve.com. May her merry heart rest in the medicine of His everlasting peace. Visit bumpersfuneralhome.com to sign the online register and post condolences to the family. Arrangements entrusted to Bumpers Funeral Home of Butler.
Ethel Ward
Funeral services for Mrs. Ethel Ward of Greensboro will be held on Saturday, April 11, 2026, at 11 a.m. at ST. Mary Church, 351 Horseshoe Bend Rd., Greensboro. Pastor Joe Lee Hamilton will officiate services with burial immediately following in the church cemetery. Mrs. Ward will lie in state one hour prior to start of services. Public viewing will be held on Friday, April 10, 2026, from 1-5 p.m. at Washington & Paige Mortuary.