Dorothy S. Gressett

Published 6:00 am Monday, December 20, 2010

    BRANDON — Services for Dorothy “Dot” Gressett will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Crossgates Baptist Church in Brandon; at 2 p.m., there will be a 30-minute open-casket service at Salem Baptist Church in Toomsuba. Burial will be in the church cemetery with Ott and Lee Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

    Mrs. Gressett, 77, died Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010, at her home in Brandon, where she lived with her daughter for 28 years. Dot was born July 22, 1933, in Meridian, Miss., to parents, Mary and Winner Shelton. She was married for 34 years to Lois Desma Gressett. She worked in Meridian 25 years for A&P Tea Company where she began as a cashier and was promoted later to the first woman manager of an A&P Food Market in the Mississippi and Louisiana district. She and her husband were in an auto/train collision in January of 1983, which she survived, but as an amputee of the left leg and legally blind.  She moved to Brandon for hospitalization and rehabilitation. She has resided with her daughter, Marie, and family in Brandon since 1983.

    Although handicapped, Dot was a very active lady. She crocheted from memory and was an active attendee in her senior ladies’ Bible class and the Prime Timers at Crossgates Baptist Church, Sassy Sister’s Red Hat organization, craft group and potpourri group, to name a few.

    Survivors include her daughters, Marie Jackson and husband, Arnold, of Brandon, Pat Sullivan and husband, Travis, of Meridian; son, L.D.

Gressett Jr. and wife, Violet, of Toomsuba; sisters, Jane Watkins of Meridian, Martha Simons of Olive Branch, Mary Barnett and husband, Freddie, of Flowood and Carolyn Rivers and husband, Joe, of Gautier; grandchildren: Liesa Holeman and husband, Jeff, missionaries in Lima, Peru, Sonya Covey and husband, Russell, of Madison, Missy McMinn and husband, Chris, of Brandon, Jason Hagwood and wife, Cassie, of Enterprise, Kevin Gressett, Larry Gressett and wife, Jackie, Cassie Reed and Kevin Culpepper, all of Toomsuba; great-grandchildren, Haylee Holeman, Jackson Holeman, Megan McMinn, Sydney McMinn, Hayden McMinn, Cameron Covey, Chris Covey, Waylon Gressett, T.J. Gressett, Grace Hagwood; and sister-in-law, Kathleen Weathersby.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Lois; brothers, Bobby and Billy; her mother, Mary; and her father, Winner.

    Pallbearers will be Kevin Gressett, Larry Gressett, Jason Hagwood, Russell Covey, Chris McMinn and Jeff Holeman.

    Visitation will be held today from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. at the funeral home.Ethan C. S. Baughman