Mary Jean Holt Nichols passed away peacefully at her home on Thursday, July 20, 2023, surrounded by her loved ones. Visitation will be held at Nebo Church in Sulligent, Alabama on Tuesday, July 25th from 10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. with the funeral service starting at 12:00 noon, officiated by Chester Replogle. Burial will be at the Nebo Church cemetery following the service with Otts Funeral Home in Sulligent, Alabama directing.
Ms. Nichols was born on May 14, 1938 in Fruitdale, Alabama to the late William and Florence Holt. She graduated from Fruitdale High School at the age of sixteen, and then from college with a degree in education. She taught school for several years before pursuing her passion of helping people, graduating from Mississippi University for Women in 1984 with a degree in nursing. As a registered nurse, she worked for the Lowndes County Health Department, and then for Baptist Hospital, where she was instrumental in the creation of one of Mississippi’s first hospice programs. She was vital to the development of hospice throughout the State of Mississippi. She served as Director of Baptist Hospice until she retired at the age of 62. In 1996, she was awarded Mississippi’s first Heart of Hospice Award from the Mississippi Hospice Organization, recognizing her dedicated leadership and outstanding service. In her words, she did not help people die; she helped people live until they died. She helped hundreds of patients and families deal with the grief of terminal illness, providing the most loving care to them during their end of life experience. Ms. Nichols and her family were blessed to have Baptist Hospice involved in her end of life care.
Ms. Nichols was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Kenneth Nichols; her son, Byron Wayne Nichols; sisters, Betty Replogle, Margaret Gaston, and Katie Holt; brothers, Hardy Holt, Jimmy Holt, Harry Holt, William Holt, Irby Holt, Glenn Holt and Walter Holt; and her grandmother, Lena Jane Burnes.
She is survived by her two daughters, Mary Nichols Price and Susan Nichols Wilder, her grandchildren, Christopher Nichols (Jessica), Amanda Smith (Jeff), Amy Shelton (Ben), Samantha Vindich (Stephen), and Gibson Studdard (Jarred), and ten great-grandchildren, and a host of nieces, nephews and friends.
Memorials may be made to Baptist Hospice in Columbus, Mississippi or the Nebo Church Cemetery Fund in Sulligent, Alabama.
