Frances McGill Gresham, beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, passed away at her home on Monday, September 18, 2017, from complications of pneumonia. Born on March 7, 1936, in Ashland, MS, to Amanda Frances Roberts McGill and Rosamond Palmer McGill. Frances attended Ashland Methodist Church and graduated from Ashland High School, where she was "Miss Ashland" during her senior year. She knew at the age of fourteen that she was destined to marry her sweetheart, "Tubby" Gresham. After they were married, on May 11, 1954, they were stationed at Bergstrom AFB in Austin, Texas, before moving to Holly springs to start a family. Together, they attended the Mississippi Bankers' Convention for 63 straight years.
Frances was active in the Holly Springs First Baptist Church and in the community, as a member and past president of the Thursday Club, Belles and Books, and the Holly Springs Garden Club. She was a legal secretary at Hurdle and Hurdle, and an employee of both Wurlitzer and Holly Springs Brick and Tile. Frances was the first female Marshall Academy Board member, and was an avid traveler. Her love of Africa and her journeys there gave her great pleasure. Frances enjoyed a wide range of hobbies which included rafting, horseback riding, and attending auctions, and she loved creme brulee and all things turquouise. The joys of her life were her grandchildren, and later her great-grandson.
Frances is survived by her devoted husband of 63 years, Sparkman Boothe "Tubby" Gresham, sons Gregory Boothe Gresham (Laney), and Steve McGill Gresham (Mindy), and daughter Anita Frances Gresham Barnett (Heath), all of Holly Springs, and grandchildren Steven McGill Gresham (Masey), Ellen Parrish Gresham Dodson (Houston), Gregory Boothe Gresham Jr., Madalyn Elana Gresham Bennett (Aaron), Amanda Frances Barnett and Anna Rosamond Barnett, and great-grandson Taylor McGill Gesham ( she was anxiously awaiting the arrival of a second great-grandson, Palmer Tippens Gresham.) She is also survived by a sister, Rosalie McCloud of Gulfport, and her very dear cousin and lifelong partner in crime, Joanne Autry Davis.
Visitation will be Tuesday, September 19, from 10:00 am until noon, at First Baptist Church, with the funeral services to follow. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be made to the First Baptist Church of Holly Springs and the Oxford, Mississippi Humane Society. Friends are asked to wear turquoise, in Frances' memory, to the service. |