PINE BLUFF — Mrs. Marie Sprinkle Coleman,
92, passed in Little Rock on January 12, 2022. She was born in Rosston, Ark., to Isaiah and Inez Beasley Henry on January 25, 1929. The family moved to Rison, Ark., where Marie graduated from Lanwood High School. Marie married Calvin Sprinkle, Jr, in 1946, helping him operate Sprinkle Pulpwood Company as bookkeeper. As their family grew, she was determined to finish college and become a schoolteacher. She took time off from school after each child, then returned to driving to Pine Bluff to attend Arkansas AM&N College (now University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff).
Persistent and determined, by age 31, Marie had nine children and had earned her college degree in Elementary Education. She taught at Lanwood Elementary School in Rison. They moved to Pine Bluff in 1963 and Marie taught at Coleman and LL Owen Elementary Schools. Marie went above and beyond for her students, with extra personal help for those in need. She retired for several years, but her love of children drew her back to the classroom in her 60s, teaching at Dodd Elementary School in Little Rock several years before retiring a second time.
Marie dealt with clients of Sprinkle Pulpwood Company with class and professionalism. In 2019, Calvin, Marie, and the company were featured in an exhibit on Arkansas’ timber industry, at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock.
The family joined Mt. Pleasant AME Church in Pine Bluff, where Marie served in various capacities: Trustee, Steward, Sunday School Teacher, Women’s Missionary Society, Class Leader, Stewardess Board, and lead the Young People’s Department. As an adult, she learned to play piano and was a church musician for several years.
Marie cultivated an enormous city lot-sized garden with her built-in crew of 9 helpers. She loved traveling, attending church functions, reading the Bible, canning and preserving food, and spending time with family. Grandchildren loved spending the night because they knew Grandma would have warm breakfast on the stove in the morning.
She was an excellent cook whose chunky giblet gravy was unmatched. Marie walked and rode her exercise bike daily into her 90s. Always a classy dresser, Marie was meticulous about her appearance. Her highlight was witnessing her children, grands, and great-grands graduate, no matter how far she had to travel. She remarked that, “every time a grandchild walks across that stage, I feel like I’m graduating all over again.”
Marie was a (life) member of the NAACP, National Association of University Women, Arkansas Retired Teachers Association, and the Order of the Eastern Star. he City of Pine Bluff honored Marie by declaring January 25, 2019 “Marie Sprinkle Coleman Day.”
Calvin passed in 1996, just short of their 50th anniversary. She later married Leon Coleman, who passed in 2012.
Marie was also preceded in death by her parents; children, Patsy Lane, Harold Sprinkle and Rickey Sprinkle; siblings, Hazel Archer, Orene Noel, Mildred Williams, Catherine Crumpton, Verna Elliott, and A.C., Raycine, and Matthew Henry; great-grandson, Gerron Sprinkle; and son-in-law, Kermes Lane.
Survivors include children, Ila Dorn, and Michael Sprinkle of Pine Bluff, Judge Alice Gray and Thelma Jones of Little Rock, Sherman (Retha) Sprinkle of White Hall, Ark., and Billy (Sheila) Sprinkle of Redfield, Ark.; daughter-in-law, Jacqulain Sprinkle; sisters, Christine Hawkins and Mattie Johnson; 28 grandchildren; over 65 great and great-great-grandchildren; other relatives, and friends.
Visitation Friday, January 21 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Mt. Pleasant AME Church, 1300 North Magnolia, Pine Bluff, Ark. Celebration of life Saturday, January 22, at 12:30 p.m., Mt. Pleasant AME Church, 1300 North Magnolia, Pine Bluff, Ark. Services entrusted to Brown Funeral Home of Pine Bluff. www.brownfuneralhomeandmortuary.com