Shirley Wilemon Ramsey

Shirley Wilemon Ramsey, 82, died Sunday morning at her home in Belden after a long, courageous battle with cancer.
Shirley was born in Prentiss County on January 21, 1938. She moved to Tishomingo County and attended Belmont High School, where she was a part of the girls basketball team that played in the state finals in 1956. She was a graduate of Western Carolina University and earned her Master’s Degree from the University of Mississippi.
A lifelong educator, Shirley began her teaching career in Phil Campbell, Ala., then taught at Northeast Mississippi Community College and Tarkio College in Missouri, and spent 30 years in the public schools in Florida before retirement.
Shirley was a generous soul who would do anything she could to meet the needs of others. She never met a stranger and was able to strike up a conversation under most any circumstances. She was an avid golfer, especially proud of the two holes-in-one she shot earlier in her playing days. She was also a 41-year member of Alcoholics Anonymous and was well-known as someone who encouraged her fellow members in their journey.
She is survived by a brother, J.P. Wilemon, Jr. (Bobbie), of Belmont; sister-in-law, Wanda Wilemon of New Site; and her stepchildren, Michael Ramsey (Rebecca) of Pie Town, New Mexico, and Nell Hannon (Jerry) of Grant, Alabama.
She is also survived by her nieces and nephews: Paul Brown (Deborah); Clayton Wilemon (Denise); Carolyn Maxcy (Jerry); Kay Wilemon; Mack Wilemon (Nelda); Gina Smith (Greg); Constance Brocato (Carroll); Paulette Holloway; Sue Dwyer (Russ); Margaret Ann Arnold (Mike); and Martha McClung (Tom); as well as a number of great and great-great nieces and nephews and cousins, and many special friends.
Shirley was preceded in death by her husband, Harold Ramsey; her parents, Price and Kate Wilemon; her sister and brother-in-law, Myrl and Aubrey Brown; her brother, Euel Wilemon; sister-in-law, Marie Wilemon; and a stepson, Clinton Ramsey.
At Shirley’s request, she will be cremated and her ashes scattered on the Lake Junaluska Golf Course in North Carolina. Also at her request, no services will be held. In a poem she wrote looking ahead to this time, she said, “I want no funeral in a gloom-filled room” and asked that we “remember the love we once shared.”