Memories.......


Frances Robertson Copley

Frances Elisabeth Robertson Copley passed away on October 9, 2011 at the age of 92.   Frances was the mother of Richard and Mark Copley and was the daughter of Dixie Wilson Robertson.   She attended our 2008 Wilson reunion in Baltimore, MD.   Frances was preceded in death by her parents, Marvin and Dixie Wilson Robertson; son, Gary Kent Copley and husband, Cecil William Copley. She was born in Kosciusko MS, graduated from Calhoun City H.S. in 1936 and was Miss Calhoun City MS. She moved to Memphis, met and married Cecil Copley in 1944 and raised her family here. She was a gracious hostess and a superb cook, especially of vegetable beef soup and lemon icebox pie. When she had an empty nest, she resumed her earlier career as a stylist at Woman’s World. She was a member of St. Stephen’s Methodist Church and at one time, Highland Heights Methodist. She is survived by her two sons, Richard and his wife, Diane; Mark and his wife Julie; her four grandsons, Rob DeLong; Micah, Wade, and Jake Copley; her sister, Billie Jean Baker and her husband, Elton; and her nephews, David and Terry Felder, and their wives and children.  Frances will be very much missed by the extended Wilson family.


Ruth Wilson Thompson and Thelma Wilson Barton
(by Bill Thompson)

Since our Wilson reunion in June 06 we have said goodbye to two more of our dear family.  Aunt Thelma Wilson Barton (87) went to be with the Lord 9/17/06.  She was the youngest daughter of John F. Wilson, granddaughter of  Dixon L. Wilson and mother of Donny "Sonny" Barton and Sue Barton Thomas.  On 1/22/07 Ruth Wilson Thompson (94) made the same journey.  She was the other daughter of John F. Wilson, granddaughter of Dixon L. Wilson and mother of Chad Thornton Thompson (dec 1996), Billy Wilson Thompson, Betty Jo "BJ" Thompson Chamness, and Judy Thompson Hand.  With these departures all of John F. and Hettie Hutchison Wilson's children have made their heavenward exit.  Frank C. Wilson (94) father of Carolyn Wilson Bannon and Margaret Wilson Frame, the only son and oldest of the 3 passed away 10/16/02.   All 3 outlived their spouses by several years. 

Mother Ruth's funeral was held Jan. 25 in a Clinton, MS funeral home within sight of  the home place where our family spent many happy years.  The light went out of her life when Daddy Harold died in 1999 and never came back on until she rejoined him.  The theological details regarding heaven may be somewhat obscure but one thing I know - since it took seeing daddy again to make her joy complete, so must it have been.  

There was a rather unique and unplanned event that occurred on the day of mother's funeral service.  The small Clinton, MS newspaper had been running a series of pictures and articles featuring prominent historical events and residents of the community.  Just hours before the funeral on the front page of the paper there appeared a picture including both mother and daddy among friends of the Order of Eastern Star to which they belonged for 50+ years.  By divine appointment it seems that "someone" ordained that her passing would not go unnoticed in their home community.