Delouise Biggs Johnson - For Grandma Biggs (Johnson), it will be a homecoming birthday (Dec 23rd) and a homecoming Christmas - as she departed this life and arrived at her Heavenly home. She was a native of Winn, AL and longtime resident of Grove Hill, AL, passed away December 9, 2025.
She loved her family, the outdoors, hunting and crocheting. She was a member of Bassett Creek Baptist Church in Grove Hill, AL and Turnerville Baptist Church.
She was born at nearly 98 years old, she experienced a lot and lived through decades of history that most of us only know from documentaries and books.
She wasn’t just a mother and grandmother, she was an era, a whole world we got to experience through her stories about her seemingly pioneer-like, old southern youth in a sharecropping family. She had that mix of grit and gentleness that only people of her generation seemed to possess. Grandma had a host of siblings, countless stories, and a memory sharp enough to keep every cousin, every uncle and every family milestone in perfect order. If you dropped in, she’d catch you up on the entire family over a fresh pot of coffee and homemade biscuits left over from breakfast.
Her optimism was zesty and crisp on the outside, warm and tender on the inside - just like her cooking. She never complained. She never stopped loving. And even in her later years, she still lit up when she talked about old times. Grandma always made you feel like you and your experiences mattered as well.
Grandma made Christmas extra special, cooking up lavish Southern dishes and desserts for family and friends. Her cuisine was always a tremendous hit at the church dinner-on-the-ground. The holidays won’t be the same without her cornbread, butter beans, gumbo, and of course her famous chicken-and-dumplings.
The holidays will feel different now, quieter… but the traditions she gave us - the food, the stories, the gatherings, the love - are ours to carry forward.
Losing her hurts. It’s another hit in a holiday season that has already felt heavy. Deer season won’t be the same as memories of the grandkids getting their first deer, taken from behind her house and of her own deer she harvested from hunting over the years. Grandma would get up at 3:30 am, cook a full breakfast and send us off hunting with thermoses of coffee, hot chocolate and snack.
She hunted turkey, with her dad, in her youth and hunted deer with the family well into her 90’s. Grandma also loved watching Alabama football and crocheting.
We are blessed that she lived to see her grandkids and some of her great grandkids grow up and raise families. We are also grateful that several generations were able to truly experience her love, her dedication, and her talents. We are thankful for every year she gave us. We are thankful she was able to love us and leave part of herself in us.
We know she is whole again, reunited with the family and friends that she lost over the years. She also lost two husbands who, in their convalescent years, she single handedly took care of at home, until their last breath.
Grandma Biggs lived so long that I guess we forgot this day would eventually arrive. We will always hold on to the lifelong years of experiences we had with her.
She made sure that when our time comes…that we too know the way Home.
This isn’t goodbye forever - just goodbye for now.
She was preceded in death by her husband and father of her children, George Travis Biggs; husband, Amos Johnson; her siblings, Bessie Blackwell, Irma Graham, Glover Guy, Elroy Guy, Eugene Guy, M.B. Guy and Myrtis Baros; and her daughter-in-law, Tammy Biggs. She is survived by two sons, George Michael Biggs and Kenneth Travis (Dessie) Biggs; her sister, Annette Stokes; five grandchildren, Melissa Biggs, Steven Biggs, Corey Biggs, Angel Roberts and Travis Biggs; eleven great-grandchildren, Jennifer, Anna, Brittany, Kayla, Blake, Shana, Corbyn, Olyvia, Drew, Taylor and Camilla; thirteen great-great-grandchildren, Bear, Tori, Braylen, Bryson, Brantley, Jaxson, Zaidyn, Rowan, Kenion, Liam, Carli, Lyla and George; nieces, nephews, and other family members, Karen Biggs and Flo Biggs.
Funeral services will be held Friday, December 12, 2025 at 11 am from the chapel of Radney Funeral Home in Saraland. The family will receive friends at the funeral home beginning at 10 am. Interment will be in Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens.
