Smith Sanders

Rev. Smith Sanders, age 91, died Thursday May 17, 2018, at the Mississippi Care Center in Morton following an extended illness.

Funeral services were conducted at 2 pm Saturday, May 19, 2018, at the Harperville Baptist Church, with interment in the Harperville Memorial Park.  Rev. Don Wilson, Rev. Bobby McKay and Rev. Jason Tillman  officiated. Visitation was held from 5pm-8pm Friday, May 18, 2018, and again Saturday from 11am-1pm at Ott & Lee Funeral Home in Forest.

Rev. Sanders was born on September 3, 1926, in Scott County to his parents L. Roy Sanders and Beulah Miller Sanders.  During his lifetime, he served in the Navy, was a businessman, with a cattle and poultry farm, a teacher, coach and principal.  For over sixty years, he was a Baptist minister who served churches in Scott and Leake County.  He pastored at New Providence and Tuscola Baptist churches simultaneously for over forty years.  During his long tenure as a pastor, he officiated the marriage of more than five hundred couples.  After his retirement from the ministry, he was a devoted member of Harperville Baptist Church.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife of sixty-seven years, Ruby M. Worrell Sanders. Survivors include his four children; Iris D. King (Jimmy), Charles R. Sanders (Sonya), Suzette M. Benton (David) and Gregory M. Sanders (Sheila) all of Forest; two surviving sisters, Lois Chamber of Forest and Edwina Norris of Naples, FL.  He also leaves a legacy of eight grandchildren; Kevin King, Chris King (Brenda), Jonathan Sanders (Mindy), Matthew Sanders, Hannah Benton, Lindsey D. Jones (Justin), Joseph Sanders and Victoria Sanders and three great-grandchildren; Austin King, Megan King and Seth Sanders.

Pallbearers were Don McDaniel, Randy Cahoon, Kyle Brantley, Jacob Lee, Richard Dolan and Will Boswell.  Honorary pallbearers were Paul Stewart, Charles Rawson, Wayne Harvey, Mickey Myers, Johnny Gross and the Deacons of Tuscola Baptist Church.

Memorials may be given to Harperville Baptist Church Mission Fund, P.O. Box 35 Harperville, MS  39080. ​

Funeral services provided by Ott & Lee Funeral Home of Forest.

Telephone: (601) 469-3412