Willie Lou went home to see her Lord and Savior on Sunday, January 18, 2026. She was 96 years old.
The family will receive friends on Monday, January 26, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. at Collins-Burke Funeral Home, services will follow at 11:00 a.m. in the Collins-Burke Chapel. Burial will be at Walker Memory Gardens. Rodney Thompson will officiate.
She was preceded in death by her Husband-Harold, after 56 years of marriage, and her Parents-Rev. Silas Alvie Ganey and Mae Stockman Ganey; Sisters-Vergin Langston (Leland) and Bette Ganey (Jerome), and Brothers-George Ganey (Rushie) and Huford Ganey.
She is survived by her Two children-Carmen Lee (Sherman) of Fayette, Alabama, and Edwin Bickerstaff (Janice) of Jasper; Grandchildren-Joshua Lee (Dana) of Bahrain, Brigitte Lee of Jasper, Morgan Short (Drew) of Jasper, and Micah Bickerstaff (Allison) of Jasper; and Great-grandchildren-Elias Lee of Bahrain, and Easton Bickerstaff and Callen Bickerstaff both of Jasper.
She was born in Dogtown and lived in Dogtown and Carbon Hill. She graduated from Carbon Hill High School and attended secretarial school in Birmingham after high school graduation. Willie Lou met her future husband, Harold, at Clarendon, Arkansas, while her father was pastoring a church in that area. They married in 1950 just before Harold left for boot camp during the Korean War. After his enlistment was up, they moved to Jasper, Alabama. They lived for three years in Winfield in the 1960’s and then returned to Jasper where she resided until her death.
She will be remembered for her decades of Sunday School teaching. She started teaching middle school-age children. She was loved for her teaching so much that the students kept asking for her to be their teacher every year. She was still teaching them long after the students were adults, married, and had children of their own. She was gifted in teaching the Bible, making it practical and alive. She was asked to teach at her home church and other churches, also.
She loved the Lord and was a woman of prayer and faith. People still come to the family and tell what she meant to them and how they loved her. She loved people, also. In her 80’s, she was still visiting people in the nursing home.
Willie Lou was loved very much, especially by her grandchildren, who have many wonderful memories of her.
