Bessie Lee Stewart Breeden

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Jan. 31, 1911 – Jan. 30, 2016

JACKSON — Services for Bessie Lee Stewart Breeden, 104, of Vidalia, who died Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016, surrounded by four generations of family who gathered to celebrate her 105th birthday, will be 2 p.m. today at Lakewood Funeral Home Chapel in Jackson.

Burial will follow at Lakewood Memorial Park under the direction of Lakewood Funeral Home.

Visitation will be from noon until service time today at the funeral home.

As her family sang “Amazing Grace” at her bedside, she left her family here and began to celebrate her continued life with generations of family and friends who had gone before her.

Mrs. Breeden was born Jan, 31, 1911, in Jeff Davis County, the daughter of John Calhoun Stewart and Mary Victoria Ainsworth Stewart.

Her early years were spent in the Brookhaven area. She later relocated with her daughter, Mary Ruth Avery, to Winnsboro, La., to join her family. She soon began a career of restaurant management until World War II when she trained to work in munitions factories as part of the war effort. After the factories closed, she relocated to Natchez and was employed by Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company for 18 years.

She later trained to be a licensed practical nurse and enjoyed being a private sitter until age 85 in the Natchez and Vidalia areas.

She was a lifelong member of the Apostolic Pentecostal faith and longtime member of Faith Tabernacle Pentecostal Church in Vidalia.

Mrs. Breeden also enjoyed visiting the sick and those in nursing homes and enjoyed her monthly meetings with the Love Circle at Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Louisiana.

Mrs. Breeden was preceded in death by her husbands, P.W. Avery and Alton Breeden; her parents; two sisters, Armenthia Garner and Lessie Wiggins; one brother, Clement Stewart; and a number of nieces and nephews.

Survivors include one daughter, Mary Ruth Avery Leggett, who was a tireless, loving caregiver for nine years; three grandchildren, Diane Varner and husband, Don, of Clinton, Arlene Adelsheimer and husband, Phil, of Marietta, Ga., and Arthur Leggett and wife, Cheryl, of Thorsby, Ala.; eight great-grandchildren; and seven great-great-grandchildren.

The family thanks Southern Care Hospice Services for the loving support given to our family and our grandmother during her last few days with us.

Online condolences may be sent to lakewoodfuneralhomes.com.