Heaven welcomed a faithful servant home. Mary Virginia Brame, 95, of Bay Springs, MS passed away on Thursday, May 2, 2024. She was born Monday, December 24, 1928 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at 10:00 AM at Bay Springs Baptist Church, with funeral services at 11:00 AM. Burial will follow in the Bay Springs City Cemetery. Dr. Frank Harmon will officiate with Colonial Chapel Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Mary Virginia Sutherlin Brame grew up in Mooringsport, Louisiana and moved to Heidelberg, Mississippi at the age of 16.  She graduated from Heidelberg High School as valedictorian and star student.   It was at Heidelberg High School where the dashing Tom Q. caught her eye and asked her to the fair.   They were smitten and married in 1947.   The young married couple lived in Tennessee and the Mississippi Delta where Tom Q. graded cotton, before returning to Bay Springs as young adults.

Several years after moving back to Bay Springs, they welcomed their first son, Thomas Quitman, Jr. and then their daughter Mary Carol.   Mary Virginia's first love after Jesus was always her family.   She prided herself on her children.  After her children began elementary school, she finished her Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi.   She would often tell how she would go to school only while her children were in school and then do her studies after they were in bed.

Mary Virginia also loved her church, Bay Springs Baptist Church.  She joined as a young married lady and taught Sunday school for over 6 decades.  She served on numerous committees thru the years and sang in the church choir.  She was honored when in 2008 she chaired the centennial celebration committee and was asked to write the church's history.  Tom Q.'s family were founding members, she loved telling stories she had heard thru the years and speaking with other long-time members to add their perspective to the history.

Her grandchildren and great grandchildren were her other source of great pride.  She was constantly encouraging them and bragging on them.   Rarely missing an event for them.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, Tom Q., her parents, Edgar (Dude) and Marguerite McAnn Sutherlin and her beloved brother, Edgar (Buddy) Sutherlin.

She will be greatly missed by her surviving family: children, Thomas Brame and Carol (Win) Girod, her grandchildren, to whom she was affectionately Gama, Melissa (Brad) Murray, Laura (Jimmy) Cerra, Thomas Brame, III, Jon Winters (Danielle) Girod, William (Angela) Girod, Nicholas (Aidan) Girod.   She will also be missed by her 7 perfect great grandchildren, Elizabeth and Bradley Murray, James and John Wylie Cerra, Marley Jane, Presley, and Olivia Brame Girod.  She is also survived by her sister Ann Sutherlin Nicholson and several beloved nieces and nephews.

Pallbearers will be Winters, William, Nicholas, Thomas, Brad, and Jimmy.

In lieu of flowers, the family request donations to her beloved church, St Jude, or your favorite religious organization as you know God was a constant concern for Mrs. Brame.

An online guestbook may be signed at www.colonialchapelbaysprings.com