Sara Bess Jennings Mize

Sara Bess Jennings Mize died March 13, 2008, at Flowers Hospital with her family by her side. She was 88.
Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, March 15, 2008, at Byrd Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Kyle Gatlin officiating. Burial will follow in Memory Hill Cemetery with Byrd Funeral Home directing. The family will receive friends from 10 until 10:45 a.m. before the service at the funeral home. The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Covenant United Methodist Church Building Fund, 3610 W. Main Street, Dothan, AL 36305.
Sara Bess Jennings Mize was born Dec. 18, 1919, to Bess Jennings and Ralph Lee Jennings Sr. at Pleasant Grove, Miss. Like her mother, she became a teacher. She was a graduate of Mississippi Delta State Teachers College and was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma International Teachers Honor Society. She served 32 years in education, 25 years as an elementary teacher, three years as an elementary principal and four years as a math teacher to veterans at the trade school of Mississippi State University. In September 1948, she married James Ethridge Mize.
She was a charter member of Covenant United Methodist Church since July 1979.
She is predeceased by her husband; her parents; four brothers; one half-brother; and three half-sisters.
Survivors include her children, Bess Mize Steetle and her husband, Mark, of Dothan, Kathryn Mize Lloyd and her husband, Kenneth, of Bradenton, Fla., James Ralph Mize and his wife, Julie, of Eufaula; grandchildren, Sara Margaret Steetle and her husband, Joseph Chaves, Kathryn Elizabeth Steetle of Springfield, Ore., Andrew Lloyd, University of South Florida, Tampa, James Jennings Lloyd, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.; Stepgrandchildren, Shawn Lloyd and his wife, Pam, Amanda Lloyd Love and her husband, Mark; stepgreat-grandchildren, Kayla Lloyd and Tanner Love. Also surviving are several nieces and nephews.
Honorary pallbearers will be the members of the Lamp Lighters Sunday School Class.
Byrd Funeral Home, (334) 793-3003, is in charge of arrangements. Sign the guest book at www.dothaneagle.com.