Writing obits now.

Ruth Gregg Ishee

September 5, 1936 – November 8, 2016

Laurel, Mississippi

Mrs. Ishee passed to her heavenly home around eleven o'clock in the morning on November 8, 2016, following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Ruth was born to Robert and Myrtle Gregg in Taylorville, Mississippi, September 5, 1936. She was a graduate of Taylorville High School class of 1953. She spent most of her adult life as a resident in Laurel, Mississippi, though she did live in other communities around the area, with a short stay in California. Mrs. Ishee was an active member of Trinity Baptist Church where she served as coordinator for meals to her church family in times of bereavement and illness.

Ruth met her future husband, Billy Ray Ishee, at the age of sixteen, and they married not long after, on February 21, 1953. She always said that it was love at first sight, and they had fifty-four years of marital bliss, surviving many trials, but always loving each other. For a number years, Ruth and Bill served as foster parents, with many of the children they cared for continuing a relationship with them into their adult lives and calling them Mama Ruth and Daddy Bill. Ruth also cared for children as a long-time daycare owner.

She was renowned in the South Mississippi Fair circuit, where she won cooking and canning contests year after year.

Mrs. Ishee was preceded in death by her husband, Bill Ishee; her parents John Robert Gregg and Myrtle Hathorne Gregg; two children, Robert Arthur Ishee and Jeannie Ishee Gatlin; and four brothers, Bobby Joe Gregg, Tom Gregg, John Gregg, and Buddy Gregg. She is survived by two sons, David (Joni) Ishee of Soso, Mississippi, and Eddy Ishee of Laurel, Mississippi; four grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; her sister, author, Mary Lou Gregg Cooke (Mary Lou Cheatham) of Shreveport, Louisiana; a host of nieces and nephews, among them authors, Jameson Gregg and Janet Taylor-Perry; and too many friends to count.

Visitation will be Friday, November 11, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. at Memory Chapel Funeral Home in Laurel, Mississippi, with funeral services to follow at 10:30 a.m. Interment will be at Matthew's Cemetery, near Pleasant Home Baptist Church.