Mary Lois (Sullins) Mays went Home to be with Jesus on June 5, 2015. She lived a humble and profoundly loving life that was rooted in faith, family, and hard work.
Visitation will be held Sunday, June 7, 2015, from 1:00 to 2:30 at Morrison Funeral Home in Tuscumbia, with the funeral to follow in the Chapel immediately after visitation. Rev. Rodney Shewbart will officiate. Burial will be at Colbert Memorial Gardens following the service.
She was a faithful member of York Terrace Baptist Church in Sheffield, active in the Abundant Lifers and a member of the Norton Sunday School Class.
Born February 2, 1924 in Marion County, Alabama, the eighth of nine children, she grew up on the family’s farm where her youth was spent playing with siblings and friends and working on the family farm. During the Great Depression there was no change in their daily lives because they grew and raised all they needed and shared the excess with the hungry. Such luxuries as sugar, flour, and materials for sewing were obtained by trading with a peddler. Their home had no locks on doors or windows, but the smokehouse was tightly bolted. For a time, her father owned the only car in the area, so he helped others with transportation to church and doctors visits. The family attended church and Lois gave her life to Christ and was baptized in Bethany Creek as the congregation sang “On Jordon’s Stormy Banks”.
In 1945, she graduated from Hamilton High School where she was a member of the National Honor Society. In August of that year, she married her childhood sweetheart, Ray Mays, a Pearl Harbor Survivor serving in the Pacific Fleet aboard the U.S.S. Pelias and stationed at the time in California. Soon thereafter, she gathered her independent, strong, determined spirit, and, all alone, boarded a train for her new life in California. Time brought them back to Alabama where she became a homemaker and mother to Carolyn, Ray Jr, and Sara. She was an extraordinary, talented seamstress sewing love into every garment made for her children.
At age 40, she decided to become a nurse. While raising her family and maintaining a home, she would ride a bus to Decatur to attend school. In 1964, she became a licensed nurse.
Her only son, Ray Jr. was killed in August 1969 and four months later her first grandson, Ray III, was born. Her energy was then centered around time with him. For years thereafter, she and Ray Sr spent many hours tending their garden and sharing their abundant harvest with friends and family and traveling.
Lois and Ray welcomed twin grandsons, Casey and Gabe, on Easter Sunday 1981 and spent many hours helping to care for the twins. They spent many afternoons shuttling the twins between activities and loved taking them to Hamilton to visit her siblings and go fishing in her brother’s catfish pond.
Lois cherished her time with her family and friends, and enjoyed sharing meals at Newbern’s and breakfasts in Florence with Ray’s brothers and sisters, which she claimed as her own. They visited her brothers and sisters in Hamilton as often as possible.
In 2010, Lois welcomed her first great-grandchild, Kate, and welcomed twin great-grandsons, Jack and Sam, in 2014.
She moved to Wellington Place in Muscle Shoals in July 2011, where she resided until moving to Mitchell-Hollingsworth in April 2014. She enjoyed visits with family and friends, playing bingo, and doing crafts. She celebrated her 90th birthday at Wellington, with a large party and a host of family and friends.
Lois was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years Ray Mays Sr, son Ray Mays Jr, mother Sarah Wiginton Sullins, father Ben V. Sullins, brothers Ervin, Ben Terry, and Victor and sisters Gertha Holland, Bessie Wright, Alma Carlton, Ruby Williams, and Daisy Avery.
Leaving to cherish her memory are daughters Sara Bonfield, of Muscle Shoals and Carolyn Adams (C.C.) of Waco, Texas; grandsons Gabe Bonfield (Rebecca) of Atlanta, Georgia, Casey Bonfield of Saudi Arabia, Ray Mays III of McGregor, Texas; great-grandchildren Kate, Jack, and Sam Bonfield of Atlanta , Georgia; brother-and-sister-in-love Jake and Jean Mays and sister-in-love Exie Higgenbotham, all of Florence; a host of loving nieces and nephews that were so special to her.
Pallbearers will be Gabe and Casey Bonfield, Ray Mays III, Kent Mays, Audie Mays, and Tommy Brown.
The family wishes to express their heartfelt thanks for the kindness, love, and compassion shown by her doctors and caregivers over the past several years.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to York Terrace Baptist Church for Abundant Lifers (Senior Activities) or Building Fund, 1401 30th St., Sheffield, AL 35660.
