Friday, September 18, 1931, in a small farmhouse just outside of Paris, halfway between Taylor and Water Valley, on a hot, muggy, 94 degree Mississippi day, Jimmie Fay was born and nestled snugly between Henry Carl and Vernice Swain May. She enjoyed the luxuries her life afforded as the child of a tenant farmer: cooking, cleaning, riding in the back of trucks, picking cotton, swimming in lakes, hugging dogs, and playing with her three brothers.

She attended schools in Springdale and Tocopolo and completed High School at Yocona High, Class of 1951, having among her accomplishments a scholarship offer to continue her basketball career. She chose, however, to focus on business, and moved to the big city of Memphis working for awhile before returning to Oxford. She went to work at the local Kroger for just a few months before being recruited to The University of Mississippi's Office of Business Administration, and while there she completed her education in Business Administration.

Her choosing to work at Kroger was among her most important choices for while there she met a clerk who has written, "One day in 1951, a fine looking young lady came to work, and she caught my eye. Later on, after I got to know her better, I asked her if l might take her home. She asked me if l had a car." Well, the romance started and soon her mother needed to know who was occupying her daughter's time. When Vernice figured out this Benny Ferrell was a grandson of Will Goolsby, she "blessed" the relationship by saying, "My God, you're not dating that old man's grandson, are you?"

Well, she was, and did, and even married him on March 5th, 1955, but she didn't marry a Kroger clerk, she married an Airman First Class and moved to Waukegan, Illinois, and then to Mobile. Upon leaving Mobile, she and her family settled in Memphis, and one of her early predictions came to completion in the birth of a son, Benny Dwayne, following the earlier birth of a daughter, Dwala. While in High School she had told her friends she would have two children, a girl and a boy, and name them Dwala and Dwayne.

Over the years she ventured from business administration into business as a hairdresser and later as a caterer and cake decorator. She spent countless Wednesdays preparing church dinners for Leawood Baptist Church in what should be named, if it is not already, "The Fay Ferrell Kitchen." In addition to paid employment and home duties, she filled her time refinishing furniture, serving as general contractor for her new house build, sewing clothing and draperies, cooking endless new dishes, flower gardening, working puzzles and Sudoku challenges, going to water Zumba, dying her granddaughter's hair a not so temporary blue, being an "angel" to neighbors in need, and providing a home/family for a pet squirrel, several dogs, college students, a great nephew, an unofficial foster child, two summer Bible sellers, a niece, and a brother through the final stages of cancer.

Fay's international travels included Ireland, Scotland, England, France, China, and Hong Kong. She always returned home to Memphis and to Leawood Baptist Church where she was a member for 64 years providing leadership, nurture, and sustenance as a youth leader, nursery worker, guest housing host, and lead cook.

She was called by her neighbors, Ms. Ferrell; by her friends, Fay; by her brothers, Sis and Jim; by her children, Mama; by many of her chosen children, Mama Fay; by her husband, Mother; and by her grandchildren and great grands, Ninnie. Although never before her time was Ninnie a name of grace and love, it will hence forth be a title of honor and respect.

On October 3, 2021, as the sun set, Jimmie Fay May Ferrell completed her journey upon this earth.

Her family requests in lieu of flowers you bake a cake, work a puzzle, offer an act of kindness, plant some flowers, or try something new, maybe even blue hair.