Bessie Paulk Harper, 94, of Irwin County, Georgia, died Monday, October 22, 2012 at the Osceola Health Care in Ocilla.
Funeral services will be held at 11 AM, Thursday, October 25, at Henderson Chapel Primitive Baptist Church with the Elder Jimmy Chapman and the Elder Edward McIntyre officiating. Grandson, Dusty J. Griffis will give the eulogy. Interment will follow in the Henderson Chapel Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the funeral home in Ocilla from 7-9 Wednesday evening.
Mrs. Harper was born September 9, 1918 in Irwin County to the late John M. Paulk and Lula C. Gray Paulk. Mrs. Harper lived in the community all of her life. She received her beautician training from the beauty school in the Dukolph Hotel in Douglas, Georgia. She owned and operated Bessie’s Bty. Shop for 45 years and was a sales representative for American Family Life Insurance Company. For 50 years she was a correspondent for the Fitzgerald Herald and Ocilla Star and a correspondent for the Douglas Enterprise for 20 years. She was a former member of the Home Demonstration club of Irwin County and a member of the Henderson Chapel Primitive Baptist church since she was 12 years old.
She is survived by a daughter: Sylvia Henderson of Osierfield, Georgia; two daughters-in-law: Susan Harper of Osierfield, Georgia and June Harper of Irwin County; grandchildren: Leobeth Sumner, Terry G. Rubio, Matt Rubio, Jacob Harper, Joseph Harper, Suzanne Daniels and Jeremy Harper; thirteen great grandchildren; two great-great grandchildren; one brother: John Mack & Dorothy Paulk of Rockmart. Georgia. Along with her parents she was preceded in death by her husband: Daniel Jacob Harper; sons: (infant) Mack Daniel Harper, Alfred Harper and Jerry Harper; brothers: Virgil (Bubba) Paulk and Cecil Paulk; sisters: Inez Paulk and Geneva Paulk; son-in-law: Royce Henderson and great-grandson: Josh Ray.