Services for Mary Louise Gathright Owens will be held Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. Clarks Memorial Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

    Mrs. Owens, 81, died Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011, at Infinity Hospice. She was born to the late Luther and Victoria (Brookins) Gathright on April 3, 1929. She was the fifth child of nine children.

    Mrs. Owens accepted Christ at an early age at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church. She was a determined follower of Christ and faithfully served as secretary of the Sunday School, the choir, the Missionary Social and Adult Sunday School class. She served as president of the Usher Board and was a very active member of the Pastor’s Aide Committee, the Beautification Committee, the Kitchen Committee and worked with the Girl Scouts. Mary was an avid fundraiser and earned top award for several years, thereby affectionately being called “Queen Mary.”

    Mrs. Owens received her early education at the McShan School and was gainfully employed at the Lauderdale County Courthouse in 1953. She actively pursued a nursing career at Jeff Anderson Hospital and received credentials on Sept. 10, 1987. After many years of hard work and loving patient care, she retired and opened her own business, The Little Kitchen, which she operated for many years.

    Mrs. Owens was an active participant of the Lauderdale County Foster Grandparent Program for which she spent numerous hours working and showing love and compassion to many children at St. Patrick Catholic School from August 1999-May 2009. Mrs. Owens as a willing participant in the NAACP, from which she won Mother of the Year in 1992 and placed as second runner-up in 2000.

    Mrs. Owens married her friend and true love, the late Robert Owens, on Aug. 31, 1958, and to this union seven children were born.

    Survivors include four daughters, Marilyn Owens Dale of Meridian, Brenda Owens Callahan and her husband, Donnell, of Atlanta, Ga., Annette Owens King and her husband, Richard, of Augusta, Ga., and Jennifer Owens and her husband, Arlan, of Rocky Mt., N.C.; three sons, Kenneth Owens, Robert Odell Owens Jr. and his wife, Ann, and Darrilyn Owens, all of Meridian; three siblings, Eva Ruth Burley and Ardell Gathright, both of Meridian, and Grace Ronell Smith and her husband, Freddie, of East Orange, N.J.; an uncle, S.J. Wilson; four sisters-in-law, Annie Pearl Gathright, Elnora Gathright, Mamie Mauldin and Ann Owens; 19 grandchildren; 34 great-grandchildren; numerous nieces, nephews, relatives and friends; and her best friends, Annie Mae Powe and Nettie Swain.

    She was preceded in death by her husband, and five siblings, James, Floyd, Robert Earl, Clarence and Josephine Fisher.

    Visitation will be held on Friday, from 6 p.m.-7 p.m., at the funeral home.