Billie Bess Cunningham

Funeral services for Billie Bess Cunningham, 89, of Gainesville, will be held 10:00 AM, Monday, August 3, 2009 at the Woodbine Baptist Church with Rev. Darlene Conner officiating. Burial will follow at the Oak Grove Cemetery.

A visitation will be held Sunday, August 2, 2009 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM at the Geo. J. Carroll & Son Funeral Home.

Billie Bess died Friday, July 31, 2009 in Gainesville.

She was born August 17, 1919 to Luther Elijah and Hazel B. Moss Ware in Woodbine, TX.

At the age of 14, Billie Bess married Ernest Lee Cunningham on November 14, 1933 in Marietta, OK. They were married for 62 years. She was a faithful member of the Woodbine Baptist Church for 80 years. She was instrumental in starting the Woodbine Home Demonstration Club, founder of the Oak Grove Cemetery Association, and a past president of the Woodbine Community Club. She lived in Woodbine all of her life.

She was also an avid quilter, making quilts for all of her grandchildren, great grandchildren and almost all of her great-great grandchildren, until her health would not allow her anymore.

“Granny” as she was affectionately called by her family, was the best cook that ever came down the pike. She could bake a chocolate pie that was second to none. If you were at her house at meal time, you were going to sit down and eat… and eat… and eat. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy, and homemade bread that would melt in your mouth; if you went away hungry, it was your own fault. Alongside her husband Earnest, they raised some of the best tomatoes, cantaloupe and watermelon in Cooke County. She will be missed.

Survivors include her son and daughter in law Billy Ward and Robbie Cunningham of Gainesville, daughter Melba Lee Dobbs of Sherman, sister and brother in law Virginia and C.W. Links of Gainesville, 7 grandchildren,13 great grandchildren, and 6 great-great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband in August 1995, her daughter Hazel Onis Perry in 1993, and her brothers John Luther and H.G. Ware, her stepmother Ellen Ware and stepsister Juanita Beverly.