Shirley Jean Parker Williams

A Time to Live

For you crated my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well.

Psalms 139: 13-14

Shirley Jean Parker Williams, a Garden City native, was the 5^th child born to the late Curley and Marie Parker on November 14, 1953. The late Deacon Clay D. and Annie Williams accepted the role as Shirley’s Godparents. She was baptized and received her spiritual foundation at St. Matthew Baptist Church in Garden City, MS. She was very active and involved in the church’s Sunday School, BTU, and Sunday Services. Shirley received her formal education and her life-long love for basketball while attending Lillie Mae Bryant in Franklin County, MS.  

After high school, Shirley’s world would forever change when she welcomed her daughter into the world, Veronica LaShae Hockett, Shirley passionately and wholeheartedly accepted the role of mother when God blessed her with ‘Shae’. They would be inseparable.  

Shirley was forever grateful that she accepted the invitation from her sister, Doris, to come to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She would make Biloxi, MS, her home where she established a village of loving family members and friends. Shirley was a source of love, support, and strength to her family and friends. Her family was everything to her. Those who knew her enjoyed her potato salad, pineapple pudding, macaroni and cheese and many other specialty dishes that she enjoyed preparing.

Shirley was a member of New Bethel Baptist Church in Biloxi, MS. She loved her church family. She generously gave her time and talents. Shirley remained a faithful and devoted member even when her health failed and she physically was unable to attend.

Believing 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” She started her career in the medical field as a C.N.A at Howard Memorial Hospital. She dutifully worked and cared for patients for more than forty years throughout her career. Shirley would later retire from Bay Cove Assistant Living Facility.

Love would find Shirley again, when she dated and married Lee V. Williams in 2011. Their time together was brief, but she cherished the union long after his passing.

A Time to Die

“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”

2 Timothy 4:6-8 (KJV)

On, Sunday, May 7, 2023, Shirley Jean Parker Williams’ mansion was completed in Glory, and God called her home with her loving daughter at her side.

Shirley will be lovingly remembered and cherished by her daughter, Veronica LaShae Hockett of Dallas, TX; siblings, Girlee Sanders of Roxie, MS, Susie Bell Green of Vidalia, LA, Doris (Glennis) Gibson of Biloxi, MS, Hattie Mae Greene of Columbus, GA, Claudie (Johnny) Thompson of Biloxi, MS, and Curley Parker, Jr. of Clinton, MS; and a host of nieces, nephew, cousins, and friends.

A visitation will be held from 3 pm to 5 pm at the Howard Avenue Chapel of Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home on Friday, May 12, 2023. On Saturday, May 13, 2023 a funeral service will begin at 1 pm at New Bethel Baptist Church. Interment will be at Pernell Cemetery in Garden City, MS on Monday, May 15, 2023.

In lieu of flowers, should friends desire, memorial donations may be made to Shirley’s church home, New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church – 255 Main St, Biloxi, MS  39530 (228-432-8320)

Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home is honored to serve the family of Shirley Jean Parker Williams.