Visitation will be 5:00-8:00pm, Friday, October 4, 2019, and 9:00-10:00am, Saturday, October 5, 2019, at Baldwin-Lee Funeral Home in Pearl. Funeral services are 10:00am, Saturday, in the funeral home chapel with interment in Floral Hills Memory Gardens.
Lillian was born November 18, 1928, in Richland, Mississippi, the only daughter of six children born to the late Lee Bates and Lillian Moore Bates.
Lillian loved life and lived it to the fullest. She enjoyed music, dancing, and playing her harp, always with her lips done in red.
A true woman of God, she was a member of First Baptist Church in Richland where she loved, and was loved, by her church family.
Lillian’s family was her greatest joy, and nothing made her happier than cooking for them. Sunday meals were major events, complete with her famous fried chicken and banana pudding. And who didn’t consider themselves especially blessed upon receiving one of her homemade pecan pies.
Lillian was raised with a strong work ethic, which she passed on to her children. She retired from Packard Electric after more than 20 years of faithful service.
She is survived by daughters, Rena Ford, Loula Kirk, and Velma Dye; brother, T.J. Bates (Carolyn); grandchildren, Tammy Atchley, Jenny Griffin (Colby), Tracey Ford, Jason Echols, Shannon Brite (Anita), and Kelsie Dye (Brittany); 9 great-grandchildren, and 7 great-great-grandchildren.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husbands, Robert Lee “Red” Webb and Hank Berry; and brothers, Hunter Lee Bates, Daryl Bates, Joe Bates, and Percy Bates.
