Elizabeth Wade Shields McGehee

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, April 5, 2016

May 9, 1930 – April 4, 2016

NATCHEZ — Graveside services for Elizabeth Wade Shields “Betty” McGehee, 85, of Natchez, who died Monday, April 4, 2016, will be 3 p.m. today at the Dunbar Cemetery at the Natchez-Adams County Airport with the Rev. Sam Godfrey officiating.

Burial will be under the direction of the family.

Visitation will be at the family home until service time.

Mrs. McGehee was born May 9, 1930, the daughter of Ralph Bisland Shields Sr. and Irene Newell Shields.

She was raised and attended school in Vidalia. She was a graduate of Louisiana State University where she was on the “golden girl” dance team. She lived the past 60 years in Natchez.

Mrs. McGehee became a full-time homemaker, gardener and genealogist. She also enjoyed restoring old family cemeteries. She was a member of Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church and the Rose Craft Garden Club.

Mrs. McGehee was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Leicester Reber McGehee; one brother, Ralph Bisland Shields Jr.; and one sister, Irene “Gebo” Shields Godfrey.

Survivors include three sons, Thomas Leicester McGehee and wife, Nanette Bates McGehee, Ross Dunbar McGehee and wife, Mattie Ruth Burkley McGehee, all of Natchez, and Bruce Shields McGehee and wife, Kathy Egyed McGehee, of Zephyrhills, Fla.; one daughter, Kathleen McGehee Taunton and husband, Mark, of Natchez; five grandchildren, Mary Elizabeth McGehee Taylor, William Ross McGehee, Catherine Taunton Strader, Ellenora McGehee Bentley and Mark Anderson “Andy” Taunton; eight great-grandchildren; and one brother-in-law, William Godfrey.

She will always be remembered as a spiritual and attentive mother and grandmother, always putting family as her first priority.

Pallbearers will be Clare Shields, Ralph “Trippy” Shields, Ed Godfrey, James Schuchs, Tom McGehee, Ross McGehee, Bruce McGehee, Mark Taunton and Andy Taunton.

The family wishes in lieu of purchased flowers that buckets of yard flowers be brought to the cemetery. Any memorials may be made to Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church or the Dunbar Cemetery upkeep fund c/o Kathleen Taunton, 34 McGehee Road, Natchez, MS 39120.