Shirley Ann Fannin, former kindergarten teacher and equipper for Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, died June 22 in Dickinson. She was 86. She was born to Gertrude and Thomas Stocks on Nov. 14, 1936, in Waldo, Ark. She accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior at age 8 at First Baptist Church in Camden, Ark. As a teenager, she played the piano for Elliott Baptist Church in Elliott, Ark., until she went to college at Southern Arkansas University on a scholarship. She met Loyd Fannin at the Baptist Student Union at Southern Arkansas University, and they attended church together. They married on Sept. 8, 1956. In the years that followed, after a time in Norman, Okla., his job with Monsanto took them to El Dorado, Ark.; St. Louis, Mo.; and finally to Dickinson. When their daughters were in school, she attended the University of Houston to complete her bachelor’s degree in education. She spent the majority of her 20-plus years in education teaching kindergarten students. She and her husband were members of First Baptist Church in Dickinson 46 years. After she retired, she was actively involved with WMU in her church, at the associational level and 15 years as an equipper for Texas WMU, working in 11 Baptist associations. She is survived by her husband of 67 years Loyd; daughter Michelle and her husband Raymond; daughter Melanie and her husband Steve; four grandchildren; and four great-granddaughters. Her celebration of life in Christ memorial service can be viewed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/uaUYMbfEDUw, with piano prelude by her daughter Michelle and a service officiated by her son-in-law, Raymond McHenry, pastor of Westgate Memorial Baptist Church in Beaumont.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.