Bertha Adline Whirley Meeks

Bertha Adline Whirley Meeks, age 93, left behind a legacy on March 15, 2026.   She embraced the world with such grace, love, and mercy.   She was Sis, Berthie, Ole Lady, Mama, and Mamaw Meeks.   Each name she had was who she was in your life.  “Sis” would help raise her brothers and hold their secrets out by the creek side.   “Berthie” would help you cook, sew, and tend the garden.  “Ole Lady” would be a bride at age 13.  “Mama” would teach you to be a wife and a mama and make you get your own switch when you needed it from the old pear tree out back.  She cooked and oh how good it was to have your feet under her table.  “Mamaw Meeks” would teach you how to till a garden, catch a coon, and how to not leave a blade of grass in a strawberry patch.  She loved to sew and to crochet and was always willing to teach you if you wanted to learn.  She was all about family, and it was the most important thing to her.  She dipped snuff and used a wooden twig for a toothbrush. She survived the Great Depression and World War II as a young wife to a military husband.  At age 93 she saw more than most.  She was born to Lester Sr. and Eula Mae Whirley on November 20, 1932, in Winona, MS.   She was a sister to Lester Jr., “Bud,” Jesse “Tump,”and Loyd Chester “Cooter.” She was a wife to Howard “Buck” Meeks for 50 years and a mother to David, Mary, Hester, Donnia Jean, Alvin, and Sean.  Two of them have gone on before her.  She was the last of the family she was born into. She was an aunt and a sister-in-law.  She was a grandmother to three generations of children, totaling 49 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.  She was a friend and a neighbor.  She was a Christian.   She was a business woman to Meeks’s Grocery.  She was a factory worker, a seamstress, a cook, a gardener, she was the gate keeper.  She has raised up generations.  She was so wise.  When dementia and Alzheimer’s crept in and took her memory, two things remained etched in her soul. She was a wife and a mama.  She would ask for Buck every single day.  She would tell stories. Oh the stories she would tell of him and her kids. She rocked those babies to sleep all hours of the night.  She left behind a legacy.  May she never be forgotten. Funeral service will be held Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at Glendale Baptist Church, Glen, MS beginning at 2:00 p.m. with a visitation prior beginning at 11:00 a.m. Bro. Jon Haimes and Bro. Sheldon Lambert will be officiating. Interment will be in Glendale Baptist Church Cemetery. Ludlam Funeral Home is honored to serve the family of Bertha Adline Whirley Meeks. You may leave condolences online to the family at www.ludlamfuneralhome.com

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