Mattie Bell Evans

Ruffin – Mattie Evans Lee, 87, of 9228 US 29 North., died on Monday, January 21, 2008 at the home of her daughter, Wanda Lee Manley. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM on Friday, January 25, 2008 at Ruffin-Stacey Baptist Church.   Interment will follow in the church cemetery with the Rev. Mike Tillman officiating. Mrs. Lee was born in Rockingham County on March 22, 1920 to the late Columbus Evans and Molly Brown.   Mattie was a homemaker and a community babysitter all of her life.   She was known as a very good cook, not only to her own family, but to her community.   Some of her best foods were her blackberry cobbler, jams and jellies.   She was foster mother to Linda Travis from infancy till Travis’ death.   Mrs. Lee was also a faithful member of Ruffin-Stacey Baptist Church where she was a Sunday school teacher for 63 years. Along with her parents she was preceded in death by her husband, Earnest Jackson Lee, Sr., retired co-owner of King & Lee Exxon service center of Reidsville, NC; brothers, William Thomas Evans Sr., Henry Jackson Evans, Sr.; sister, Ola Ruth Evans McDaniel; step-brothers, Daniel Lanier Motley Sr., James Motley; step-sisters, Mary Motley Terrell, Annie Motley Purgerson, Laura Estelle Motley, and Catherine Motley Baker, and several other step-brothers and step-sisters on the Columbus Evans and Sarah Frances Chilton Cannon side. Mrs. Lee is survived by her son, Ernest Jackson Lee, Jr. and wife, Ann of Reidsville; daughter, Wanda Lee Manley and husband Vernon of Ruffin; grandchildren, Tony Lee of Ruffin, Monica Sanchez and husband, Ray of Villa Rica, GA, Shane Manley and wife, Ashley of Greensboro, and Brandy Joyner and husband, Will of Greensboro; step-granddaughter, Carol Jarrell and husband, Michael Ken of Reidsville; great-grandchildren, Dominick and Benjamin Sanchez; step-great-grandchild, Caleb Jarrell. The family will receive friends on Thursday evening from 7 – 9 PM at Ruffin Stacey Baptist Church and other times at the home of daughter, Wanda Manley, 2014 Lick Fork Creek Road, Ruffin, NC. In Lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Ruffin Stacey Baptist Church Cemetery fund, P.O. Box 65, Ruffin, NC   27326. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.wilkersonfuneral.com