Pearlie Mae McKenzie

Can any good thing come out of Unadilla, GA? If you could ask Willie “Uncle Bill” Davis and his wife Stella they would tell you, why sho’! As a matter of fact it was on Tuesday, April 13, 1926 that they gave birth to twin little girls Katie Ruth and Pearlie Mae. Little Katie Ruth died as an infant but they were left with a bundle of joy in Pearlie Mae. This little girl was quite precocious and appeared almost as if she’d been here before. She was sharp and feisty from the time she got here. Her signature line became “That’s my business, now get you some business”. On Oct 26, 1946 she married James A. “Taxi-James” McKenzie, Sr. They blended their families and became four. My goodness were they fruitful and multiplied greatly by giving birth to eleven more children. She was quite the Proverbs 31 woman by owning her own general store, keeping and raising countless “other” children, managing fruit crews, farming and serving the Lord’s church alongside her husband. After relocating from Moore Haven, Florida in 1968 the McKenzies, in staying true to the Baptist Covenant, united very quickly with the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church of Lady Lake, Florida under the late Rev. C.B. McRae and serving for well over thirty years under the late Rev. W. L. Fields, Jr. and unto death under its current pastor, Rev. Lorenzo Fields. Mother McKenzie didn’t just “talk the talk” but loved her Lord and his church dearly and lived out her faith by serving wherever she was needed. She kept her “Pie Pans” even to this day from all those sweet potato pies she made and sold for various projects that the church was engaged in over the years. She never drove, owned a car or had a driver’s license but went anywhere she had to go by “arranging a ride” and believed in being on time. She made most every event her children were involved in including travelling all over the country by bus, train or airplane to support her children in their various life events. It’s an understatement to say that, “Her children rise up and called her blessed.” On Wednesday, January 7, 2015, at 5:57am, while the dew was still on the roses, before the humming bird sang its morning melody and the sun began its eastern ascent towards the western hemisphere, THE LORD, in his infinite wisdom, whispered her name and called back to himself the soul of our beloved “Miss Pearlie Mae” to her temporary resting place until that great coronation around the throne of God. She told us a long time ago…. “When he calls me….I will answer and I’ll be somewhere listening for my name”. She was preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, Reverend James A McKenzie, Sr., her parents, Willie and Stella Davis, all six of her siblings (Willie James, J. B., Dan, John Wesley, Katie Ruth, and Beatrice), one son, Roy McKenzie, two daughters, Mary McKenzie Wilson and Wilene McKenzie Dix. She leaves to cherish her memories and continue her legacy: Nine children; Tommy (Alice) Cosby, Willie (Louise), Alfred (Mae), James, Jr., Fleeter (Dennis), John, Alonzo (Cathy), David (Patricia), Danny (Patricia); step-son: Lee Charles Roundtree; two sisters-in-law: Mary Dunn, Cassie (James) Napper ; Thirty-six grandchildren, Fifty-five great-grandchildren, Twenty greatgreat grandchildren; Like her children; Don and Queen; Her dear friends, “The Golden Girls”; Louise Harris, Ernestine Randolph, Rose Seward and Mozetta Allen; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.

Tributes

Pearlie Mae McKenzie

April 13, 1926 - January 7, 2015