The funeral service will be conducted at 1:00 P.M., Sunday, July 30, 2017 at Zion Hill Baptist Church, 260 West Allen Street, Leslie, Georgia. The Reverend Willie James Hill, pastor, will officiate. Interment will follow in the Davis Chapel A.M.E. Church Cemetery, GA Highway 26 West, Oglethorpe, Georgia.
Shirley, lovingly known as “Sook,” was born September 26, 1955 in Macon County, Georgia to the late Annie Will Harris and the late Willie Lewis Hollis. She was educated in the public school system of Macon County. She was preceded in death by her uncle, Eugene Harris and aunt, Lucille Maddox.
Shirley, along with other family members, joined the Davis Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church under the leadership of the late Reverend Hudson, and she later moved her membership to Zion Hill Baptist Church of Leslie Georgia. “Sook” exemplified her work on every facet of the church she loved so well. She had an open ear to everyone, as well as being very outspoken. If she was “happy” or “unhappy” …you knew it. She enjoyed cooking and loved sharing her delicious meals with her community. She truly loved caring for her children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. She was employed with Davidson Rubber Company for 30 years, a very hard worker and made everybody around her work just as hard.
On Wednesday, July 26, 2017, “Sook” peaceably took her last breath. A dear and precious wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, friend and neighbor is gone from us; a voice we love is silent, and a place in our hearts is vacant – that can never be filled.
Shirley was united in holy matrimony to Willis Thomas, Sr. and to this union they were blessed with four children, Pamela Harris, Warner Robins, Georgia, Jonathan Thomas (Sonya) Americus, Georgia, Kenneth Thomas (Antria), DeSoto, Georgia and Willis Thomas, Jr. Warner Robins, Georgia; eleven grandchildren and one great grandchild; six sibling, Gerald Harris Sr. (Tamica), Velma Harris Thomas (Eddie) all of DeSoto, Georgia, Shelman Cotton, Kansas City, Kansas, Chester Cook, Ideal, Georgia and Timothy Hollis (Stephanie), and Tina Woods (Adrian) and Eddie Holt all of Buena Vista, Georgia; mother-in-law, Clara Bell Thomas, Leslie, Georgia; sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, Alice Reddick (Ned), Ethel Franklin (Berlin) and Carolyn Whitehead all of Leslie, Georgia, Leroy Thomas (Debra), Vidalia, Georgia, Joann Green (Willie C.), Miami, Florida, Betty Joe Day (Roger), Albany, Georgia; aunts and uncles, Odessa Harris, Ft. Valley, Georgia, Ollie Harris, and Nellie Kate Range Collin, both of Oglethorpe, Georgia, and Thomas Denmark, Ellaville, Georgia; and a host of nieces, nephews, devoted cousins, other relatives and friends.