Rose R. Whitaker

Rose Rowan Whitaker, age 92, died peacefully Saturday, December 19, 2020 at Ava Maria Nursing Home where she had been a patient for more than three years, attended by her son Mark and daughter Annette Cain. She was born February 14, 1928 in Amory, Mississippi, the daughter of Charles Dudley Rowan and Mary Agnew Rowan. She attended Amory schools and graduated in 1946 as class valedictorian. The next four years were spent at Mississippi State College for Women at Columbus, Mississippi, graduating in 1950 with a B.S. degree in English. She was hired by the Shelby, Mississippi school system to teach English and Spanish to high school seniors. In 1951 she married fellow classmate John Earl Whitaker and they moved to Memphis where he was employed by Chicago and Southern Airlines (now Delta). When his Air Force unit, the 516th Troop Carrier Wing, was called to active duty during the Korean War, she returned to Amory where she was employed by the Wilson Manufacturing Company until his return in 1952. She and John Earl then settled in Memphis where she began the only career to which she ever really aspired…that of a homemaker. As a wife, mother and grandmother, she was the local, attested to by her husband’s choice of an epitaph: “she was a woman as God intended women to be, not perfect, but close enough”. Accepting Christ as her Savior at age 9, she loved hearing ‘the plan of salvation’ preached and has requested that it be offered at her funeral service, with little emphasis on her life and virtues. She and John Earl enjoyed church memberships at several places including Graceland Baptist in Whitehaven, Broadmoor Baptist in Raleigh where at various times she was a ladies Sunday School teacher. She and her husband were also members of First Evangelical Church for over 20 years. In addition to her husband of 69 years, she is survived by her son Mark (Phyllis), grandsons Nick (Grace) Lewis and Kelly, Eric (Lindsay) John Clayton, Noah and Jacob, daughter Annette Cain (Bill), sons Dr. Christian Cain (Laura) and Austin (fiancé Miranda). Relatives in South Carolina include Joe Ann Whitaker, son Bruce (Mary Ellen), daughter Mary Marguerite, Melissa, Emily and Caroline and a nephew, Norris Thomas of Henderson, Nevada. Services will be held at a later date for family only due to the virus epidemic. Memorials may be sent to St. Jude or a charity of your choice.