Extracted from The Pensacola News Journal (Pensacola, FL)
Thursday, August 24, 2006

Vernetta Shows Bishop
1915-2006

Vernetta Shows Bishop, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed from this life on August 22, 2006, after a short illness.

She was born August 6, 1915, in Moselle, Ms., the daughter of Robert Bodonnie Shows and Caroline Louella Shows. Graduating from High School, she attended Jones County, Mississippi, Junior College on a basketball scholarship, and graduated from The University of Southern Mississippi with a B.S. in Elementary Education. She taught first grade in Mississippi, moving to Santa Rosa County in 1946, where she taught at Munson School for three years, and then Bagdad Elementary for an additional fifteen years, retiring in 1965.

She is survived by her three daughters- Betty (Richard) Lewis, Bobbie (Bunny) Jernigan, and Elaine (Ozzie) Williams. She has eight grandchildren- Cynthia (Lyle) Smith, Steve (Cindy) Williams, Jennifer (Clayton) Wells, Tony Lewis, Jill Jernigan, Shelley (Bill) Andrew, Maria (Todd) LaDouceur, Catherine (John) Companiotte, and ten great-grandchildren-Christopher, Casey, Jordan, Shelby, Blake, Chandler, Alec, Benjamin, Spencer, and Sarah. She is also survived by two sisters-in-laws: Elva Meador of Laurel, Ms., and Ruth Bishop of Pensacola.

She is a member of the First Baptist Church of Milton, where she was a member of the LLL Sunday School Class, and earlier taught the Junior Girls' Sunday School Class at Bagdad First Baptist Church.

Services will be held at Lewis Funeral Home on Friday, August 25 at 1:00 P.M., with Dr David Spencer and Dr. Gary Laird officiating. Burial will follow at Serenity Gardens in Milton, with Lewis Funeral Home directing. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 P.M. on Thursday, August 24 at the Lewis Funeral Home in Milton.

Pall Bearers will be grandsons Steve Williams, Tony Lewis, Christopher Wells, Casey Smith, Todd LaDouceur, and friends Pasco Gibson and Glenn Baxley.

Honorary Pall Bearers include the LLE Sunday School Class, First Baptist Church of Milton, as well as Joan Baxley, Jack Sanborn, Pauline Grimes, Joyce and Eric Broaddus, Buddy Allen, Nicky Walker, Trish Exline, Bill Andrew, Lyle Smith, Clayton Wells, John Companiotte, Cindy Williams and FM "Bubba" Fisher.

Mrs. Bishop was well known for her kindness and patience with her friends and family, and especially to her students, many of whom kept in contact with her over the years. She was even patient enough to have taught all three of her daughters during their elementary years, who always remembered those times as filled with love and firmness.

She will be remembered by all who knew her with love and affection.