Orene E. Farese

Orene Elllis Farese was born May 20, 1916, and died April 10, 2010. Visitation will be held at the Ashland Baptist Church, Ashland, MS, on Monday April 12, 2100, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. The funeral service will be held on Tuesday, April 13, 2010, 11:00 a.m. at the Ashland Baptist Church, with visitation one hour before the service. Burial will be at the Ashland Cemetary. Her grandsons will serve as her pallbearers. She is survived by four children, John Booth Farese (Cindy), Ashland, MS; Kay Farese Graves (Terry), Memphis, TN; Steven Ellis Farese, Sr., Holly Springs, MS and Jeffrey Haimes Farese, Ashland, MS. She is also survived by seven grandchildren: Steven Ellis Farese, Jr., (Susan) Germantown, TN; Paxton Manning Farese (Christie), Madison, MS; Kelsey Farese, Germantown, TN; John Stannard Farese, Sr., (Paula) Oxford, MS; Jason Perry Farese, DDS, (Lea) Oxford, MS; Park Dodge, (Mersaidee) Tupelo, MS; Oliver Luckett, San Francisco, CA; Whitney Luckett Trible (Scott), Memphis, TN. She had two step-grandchildren, Miranda Fitch Bennett (Mason), Piperton, TN, and Justin M. Fitch (Nina), Ridgeland, MS. She is also survived by eleven great- grandchildren: Emma Reed Farese, Ellis Kilbourne Farese, John Stannard Farese, Jr., Lucien Grace Farese, Mary Manning Farese, Sky Orene Dodge, Luke William Farese, Alexa Perry Farese, Caden Wells Farese, Annette McKinley Farese and Lawson Brown Farese.
She was preceded in death by her husband, John B. Farese; her mother, Mamie Ethel Haimes Ellis; her father, William A. Ellis; three sisters, Eleanor Ellis Hester, Orlene Ellis McGlamery and Lorene "Jackie" Ellis Eudy and two brothers, Herbert Lamar Ellis and Hugh Fred Ellis. Ms. Farese graduated from Blue Mountain College in 1938. She served as an English teacher at Ashland High School in Ashland, MS and as head of the local draft board in Ashland. She was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1952, where she served with her husband as the first wife and husband in the United States to ever be elected to serve at the same time. In 1956, she was elected to serve in the Mississippi State Senate.
Ms. Farese had been an active member of the Ashland Baptist Church in Ashland, MS; Second Presybeterian Church in Memphis, TN; and Faith Preysbeterian Church in Germantown, TN.
The family has requested the memorials be sent to Blue Mountain College, Blue Mountain, MS, where a memorial scholarship honoring Orene Ellis Farese will be established.