Ruth Sparkman

Mrs. Ruth Sparkman Mrs. Ruth Bridges Sparkman, retired school teacher and resident of Rolling Fields Circle, died Monday, January 19, 2004 at Maury Regional Hospital. Funeral services will be conducted at 7 p.m. Thursday at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home with Rev. Mike Dawson officiating. The family will visit with friends Thursday from 5 - 7p.m. at the funeral home. A graveside service will be conducted Saturday at 11 a.m. at Cooksville Methodist Church Cemetery in Cooksville, Mississippi. Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church or King's Daughters School. Notes of sympathy may be sent to the family at www.oakesandnichols.com. The Laurel, Mississippi native was the daughter of the late Robert Walker Bridges, Sr. and Ava Pearson Bridges. She was married for forty-four years to Earl Gray Sparkman who preceded her in death November 23, 1983. She graduated from Mississippi State College for Women in 1938 and taught math and history at Whitthorne Jr. High School for twenty-five years. She was a member of First Baptist Church where she taught the Bethany Sunday School class and was a member of the Ruth Ford W.M.U. She was a member of the D.A.R., Maury County Union of King's Daughters and Maury County Retired Teacher's Association. Survivors include two daughters, Margaret S. Guess of Apex, North Carolina, Frances S. (Gene) Gonsoulin of Oneonta, Alabama; one brother, Robert W. (Grace) Bridges of Tucson, Arizona; one granddaughter, Sarah (Jeff) Turnell of Linden, North Carolina; and one grandson, Matthew Gonsoulin of Oneonta, Alabama. Honorary pallbearers will be members of the Bethany Sunday School Class.