LOWRANCE, ELLA SUE - Madison County, Tennessee | ELLA SUE LOWRANCE - Tennessee Gravestone Photos

Ella Sue LOWRANCE

Ridgecrest Cemetery
Madison County,
Tennessee

Private graveside services for Ella Sue Briley Lowrance will be held 11 AM Friday, May 1, at Ridgecrest Cemetery in Jackson with Jack Briley presiding. Mrs. Lowrance died Monday night at Jackson Madison County General Hospital surrounded by her family. She was 91.

Though prompted by death, this is a story of life and remembrance. She was born in 1923, or as she liked to say, “The year the tornado hit Pinson.” She was born and spent the early years of her life in the Potts Chapel community near Beech Bluff before relocating with her family to Bemis. She was the daughter of James Jasper Briley and Willie Sue Pirtle Briley and the second of ten children. She married the late James Otha Lowrance in 1940, and in 1951 moved to a beautiful white farm house on a hill in Pinson. Because they had spent every dime they had buying their home and putting in a telephone line for their trucking company, they named the house “Hope Hill,” as hope was all they had left at the time.

Hope was enough, as it turned out. Their farm and their trucking company thrived, and she did her share of the hard work required to make both successful. As the story goes, she could wake before dawn to make breakfast, drag a cotton sack to the field, return to make dinner and get everyone fed, trudge back to the fields, and then be home in time to have supper on the table. She kept the books in order for the trucking company and still found time to keep her flower beds and home in immaculate order as well.

Though she had no children of her own, she became more than a mother and grandmother to her sisters, nephews, and nieces: Bobby, Jackie, Nancy, Sheila, Bob, Laura, James, Michelle, Cathy, David, and Melinda, all of whom spent much of their time at Hope Hill and “had the run of the place,” as she always said.

She was always the perfect example of grace and charm, gently teaching and demanding manners and respect at all times. It was not unusual for her to serve the field hands their dinner on her best dishes with a tablecloth spread over the hood of her car. She enjoyed spending time with her family, cooking, being involved with the Home Demonstration Club in Parkburg, going to country dances, and socializing with her new and old friends at Jackson Oaks Retirement Village where she made her home in 2001.

She was a devout Christian and a long-standing member of Trinity Baptist Church in Bemis.

She was preceded in death by her husband J. O. Lowrance; her parents James Briley and Willie Sue Pirtle Briley; her siblings Alice Briley, Lucille Briley Ward, Marcella Briley Wooley, John Briley, and Gerald Briley; her niece Sheila Knolton; and her nephew Robert Lowrance Mayo. She is survived by her siblings James Briley Jr. (Faye) of Paris, Jack Briley (Pat) of Jackson, David Briley (Nell) of Jackson, and Nancy Briley Knolton (James) of McKenzie; her sisters-in-law Betty Briley of Bemis and Beverly Briley of Jackson; her nephew Bobby Mayo (Ann) of Pinson; and dozens of cousins, nieces, and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in her name to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

Obituary credit: James Mayo.

Contributed on 10/9/20 by daveam45
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Record #: 204672

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Additional LOWRANCE Surnames in RIDGECREST Cemetery

Additional LOWRANCE Surnames in MADISON County

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Submitted: 10/9/20 • Approved: 10/9/20 • Last Updated: 10/12/20 • R204672-G204672-S3

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