Eugenia affectionately known as “Mama Gene” “Big Mama” and “Aunt Gene” was the first child born on September 11, 1926 to the union of the late Eugene Sample, Sr. and Ellen Tillman Sample in DeQuincy, Louisiana. She was baptized and accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour at an early age under the leadership of Rev. J. H. Hinkins of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, DeQuincy, LA.
Growing up in De Quincy she often enjoyed sharing many funny stories which would leave you captivated. The home where she was born in is still being resided in today. After reaching adulthood, she met her first love, Edward Whitney. While he was off serving in the U.S. Army, she traveled to Shreveport, LA and attended Henrietta Beauty School and obtained her cosmetology license. If you are a female in this family you surely have sat behind Eugenia’s stove to have your hair “fried, died and laid to the side” with her cool wisp of the hot comb and curling irons. After completing his military service her first love returns and they marry in 1946 and move to Houston. After arriving in Houston, she joins Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of Rev. J. B. Punch. After two years of marriage, her first child is born in 1948. She is the first Faye Terrell, who only lives for 3 days and goes to live with the Lord.
The second Faye Terrell is born April 1, 1949. Her third child, Sheila Evette is born March 18, 1954 and the family is complete. The family relocates to Bakersfield, California and the marriage dissolves and she and her girls return to Houston to start a new life. As life would have it she meets and then marries in 1961 a “God-Delivered” husband, Bennie Coleman and they then build a new home in the Garden City subdivision. She joins New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church under the guidance and leadership of Rev. W. J. Profit. She worked diligently in the Women’s Mission by standing on the Word of God where it states in Hebrew 6:10 “God is not unjust, he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them” by serving those in the various nursing facilities the mission endowed to feed, to pray for, to sing to and be an extension of the Living Saviour. In 2018, she joined Galilee Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of Rev. Edwin Davis.
Those left in the care of her precious memory are her two loving daughters, Faye Lacy and Sheila Lastrape along with three adoring granddaughters, Temica (William), Monique (Sam), Tashira (Larry); one granddaughter Synithia and her only brother, Eugene Taylor Sample (Margaret Sample), one sister, Ollie Butler, two great-grandchildren, Joseph III and Skylar Evette preceded her in death and was there to welcome her in her heavenly home; one devoted grandson, Joseph, one sister, Benita Kelly of Dallas; six caring great-grandchildren Trannereka, Mia, Christopher, Joseph, Sam and Loyal, a nephew she raised as the son she never had, Gregory Sample (DeQuincy, LA), two cousins, Pearl Davillier, Mary Durald (Suisun City, CA) with a host of nieces, nephews and endearing family friends.
