Joe Banks Jr.
SARDIS––Joe Banks Jr., 60, died Thursday, July 16, 2015, at Golden Living Nursing Home in Batesville.

Services will be held Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at the PGA Building in Sardis. Rev. W.O. McKinney will officiate. Visitation will be held today from noon – 6 p.m. at Kenneth Roberson Funeral Home. Burial will be in Bell Grove Cemetery in Holly Springs.

He was the son of Roosevelt Banks Sr. and Christine Davis Banks. He was a laborer and work as a carpenter. 

Survivors include: five sisters, Mary Ann Clay, Herdia Sean Banks, and Sally Davis all of Sardis, Susie Davis of Holly Springs, and Mattie Ferguson of Memphis; and two brothers, William Banks of Memphis and John Henry Banks of Sardis.

Mike Crowson
SARDIS––Mike Crowson, 66, formerly of Collegedale, Tenn., died Thursday, July 9, 2015.
Services were held Monday, July 13 at Family Funeral Care. Burial was in Memphis Memory Gardens. 

Crowson retired after 30 years of service from MLG&W. He also attended First Faith Baptist Church.

He was preceded in death by parents, Willie and Hyacinth Crowson; one son, Paul Carroll and two brothers, Glen and Carl Crowson.

Survivors include: his wife of 30 years, Sharon Crowson, daughter, Mandy Aust (Forrest) and son, Brian Crowson (Heather); sister, Billie Howell; two brothers, Gene and Jimmy Crowson; grandchildren, Colton Aust, Sara Grace Bell, Hannah Bell, Gavin Crowson and Cade Crowson.
Memorials can be made to St. Jude Childen’s Research Hospital.

William and Lynda Boykin Irwin
BATESVILLE––Retired Major William H. “Buddy” Irwin, Sr., 81 and his wife Lynda Boykin Irwin, 75, passed away Tuesday, July 21, 2015 at Baptist Hospital DeSoto in Southaven following an auto accident on Terza Road and Highway 6 east of Batesville.

Memorial services will be for both at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 26 at Wells Funeral Home with visitation beginning one hour prior to the service.

Major Irwin was born January 22, 1934 in Tupelo to the late Elvin and Gertrude Heard Irwin. He was retired from the U.S. Marine Corps where he was a test fighter pilot.

In a 2003 feature story former Panolian publisher Kate Dickson wrote, “His active and reserve service spanned 41 years beginning when he joined the Army in 1953—followed by an active Marine tour and ending in retirement in 1994 from the Marine Corps Reserves.”
The article include a picture of then Vice President George H. W. Bush who had also been a military pilot.

Mrs. Irwin was born August 1, 1939 in Clarksdale to the late James and Mabel O’Keefe Boykin. A retired registered nurse, she had cared for many families in Panola County and the surrounding area under hospice care.

They were both members of Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Sardis.

Joint survivors include: three daughters, Brenna Dawn Irwin Choate of Arlington, Tex., Beverly Carrie Irwin of Batesville and Alisa Babette Irwin Maxwell of Maypearl, Tex., six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

He is also survived by two brothers, Carl Irwin and Jimmy Irwin of Dayton, Ohio. They were preceded in death by their son, William H. “Buddy” Irwin, Jr.

Annie Luster Butts Wren
COMO––Annie Luster Butts Wren, 87, died Sunday, July 19, 2015 at North Delta Hospice in Southaven.

Services will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at Liberty Hill C.M.E. Church. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Pate-Jones Funeral Home has charge.

She was a member of Liberty Hill C.M.E.

 She was preceded in death by her husband, Autney Wren.  Survivors include: her daughters, Mattie Wren of Batesville, Lenora Wren and Trudy Wren, both of Como, Shirley Glover of Memphis; son, Thomas Wren of Memphis; sister, Louise Morris of Como; brother, Jack Butts of Como; eight grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.