Cora Lee Gipson

Cora Lee Gipson was born on January 20, 1922 in Tom, Oklahoma to Jimmy and Flora Beatrice Hollingsworth Spencer. She was the third child of a family of twelve. As an adult, she had a strong sense of family and worked as a housewife and a seamstress, and received her GED at Phyllis Wheatley High School. Her blessing was to live to see her six children grow to maturity, have families of their own and celebrate the lives of more than sixty grand, great-grand and great-great grandchildren before her demise at the age 91. Baptized at an early age in her community church, she later served as a member of the Mt. Corinth Missionary Baptist Church of Houston, Texas under the leadership of Reverend E.B. Hill, where she worked in various capacities of the church. She became a member of the Brookhollow Missionary Baptist Church under the guidance of Reverend Ralph West. Deeply rooted in the love of family, Cora participated in many Spencer family activities. To date she is celebrated as the oldest living sibling of the twelve children of Jimmy and Flora Beatrice. Her parents and two infant sisters preceded her in death, along with her brothers, Milton Spencer, Charlie Richmond Spencer, and James Maurice Spencer. She lived to see the homegoing of sisters, Mary Elizabeth Phelps and Connie Lee Tyler, along with sisters-in-law Henerietta Spencer, Roberta Spencer and brothers-in-law Danny Ballew, Tommie Tyler, Roy Relford, Roy Harris, and Adeo Davis. She will be greatly missed by four living sisters: Beatrice Ballew of Omaha, Nebraska; Mary Virginia Relford, Jessie Davis, and Ora Lee Harris, all of Houston, Texas. She leaves six children to cherish her memory: Mercy D. Flowers of Houston, Texas; Maple Taylor of Shreveport, Louisiana; Lucille Cain of Shreveport, Louisiana; and Richard Spencer (Agnes) of Houston, Texas. She and her husband, Rayfield Windham who preceded her in death, had two children, Maple and Lucille. On October 3, 1949, she married Kelso Gipson who preceded her in death in October of 1974. To that union two children were born and reside in Houston, Texas: Rosetta Gipson, (Freddie), and Cheryl Gipson, (Michael). She experienced the death of two grandchildren: Anthony Cain, (mother, Lucille); Tarolyn Marshall Bowlden, (mother, Mercy); and a great-grandson, Anthony Hobbs, (Grandfather, Richard). A son-in law, Willie flowers (Mercy), and a daughter-in law, Cynthia (Richard), also preceded her in death.