Willie Mae Woods

Willie Mae Woods

Shreveport - After 83 years of faithful service and devotion to our Lord and Savior, wife/mother/grandmother/daughter/sister/teacher/friend, and steadfast Christian, Willie Mae Bland Woods, was called home on August 23, 2018, to be with the Eternal Father.

Willie Mae Bland was the sixth of ten children born to the union of the late Wyeseener Bland and Virginia Davis. Observing her parent's instruction that education was the path to a brighter future, Mrs. Woods became an earnest learner. In her early years she completed her primary and secondary level studies in her native Tensas Parish. She continued her studies at Southern University in Baton Rouge, where she enrolled in 1952. Upon graduation, she utilized the education she received when she joined the Women's Air Corp, serving on several military bases around the U.S. Her Southern University years yielded an additional benefit. She met a young Korean war veteran and fellow student, Henry Woods. The two entered into matrimony in 1958.

The couple began a new life together in the Shreveport/Bossier City area when she was offered a teaching position in the Bossier parish public school system. Her life as a working mother began with the birth of her children. She retired as a social studies teacher at Eden Gardens Jr. High in Shreveport.

She accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior early in life. Her service and devotion to Him found expression as a Sunday school teacher at her home and worship church, Hollywood Heights Presbyterian. She was a longtime member of the church and lived her faith to her last breath.

She leaves to cherish her memory three children, Anita R. Woods of Lewisville, TX; Henry Woods, Jr. of Washington, DC; and Willard W. Woods of Shreveport; and one granddaughter, Ariel L. Woods of Oakland, CA. She is also survived by siblings the Reverend Mary Ann Banks, Dorothy Carradine, Adena Brown, Vera Bland, and Lewis Bland (Carrol), and a host of other loving family members and friends. She was preceded in death by her husband of 48 years, Henry Woods, Sr., sisters Eloise B. Cayette, Thelma B. Rankin, Irma B. Foster, and brother Emanuel Bland.

In lieu of cards and flowers, the family requests donations be made to Hollywood Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, LA 71108.