Mary Etta Price, 96, of Ridgeland, passed away Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018 at Highland Home Nursing Home in Ridgeland.
Mary Etta was born Aug. 20, 1922 in Indianola to John Henry Price Sr. and Mary Sheedy Price. After graduation from Indianola High School in 1940, she entered Sunflower Junior College (now Mississippi Delta Community College) in Moorhead. Upon completion of her studies, she transferred to Mississippi State College for Women (now Mississippi University for Women) from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1944. Shortly after graduation, she was employed by the Department of the Navy in Washington D.C., where she remained until she transferred after World War II to the U.S. War Assets Administration and from there to the Central Intelligence Agency where she worked for twenty-one years until her retirement from government service. After that retirement, she worked several more years for a company in the private sector.
Mary Etta’s father was several years older than her mother, and as he grew older and required more and more care, she faithfully used most of her vacation time to return to Indianola to assist in caring for him. Then, when she realized several years after her father passed away that her mother was in need of her assistance, she moved back to Indianola and assisted her mother for the rest of her life. Mary Etta remained in Indianola for several years after her mother’s death and while there, she remained an active member of the Indianola First United Methodist Church as well as the Garden Club until she became incapable of living alone and found it necessary to depend upon a nursing home for her care. She reluctantly moved from Indianola to Highland Home Nursing Home in Ridgeland where one of her brothers was living in nearby Jackson and remained there for the rest of her life.
Mary Etta was preceded in death by her parents; one brother, Fred G. Price; sisters-in-law, Verna Smith Price and Dorothy Bussell Price.
She is survived by one brother, John Henry Price Jr. and his wife Norma Newell Price of Jackson; two nephews, Fred G. Price Jr. and his wife Kim of Collierville, Tenn., and David N. Price and his wife Valerie of Flowood; two nieces, Patricia Ann Price Dreve of Memphis, and Diane Price Knowles and her husband Glenn of Boston, Mass.; great-nephews, Charlie Dreve, Nicholas Dreve, Jasper Dreve, and Hunter Flynt and his wife Serena; great-nieces, April Dreve, Anna Dreve, Kirsten Price Simon and her husband Sobe, Katie Price, Alexandra Knowles Kahveci and her husband Kyle, and Haven Knowles.
The family will receive friends Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 from 2 p.m. until the 3 p.m funeral service at First United Methodist Church in Indianola. Burial will follow in Indianola City Cemetery. Burton Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in her name to Indianola First United Methodist Church or to a charity of your choice. Online condolences may be shared with the family by visiting www.burtonfuneralhome.net
