Josie Ransom

Published 12:00 am Friday, November 6, 2009

NATCHEZ — Services for Josie Derice Fleming Ransom, 46, a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, friend and servant to our God, who died Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009, at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Christian Hope Baptist Church with the Rev. Ernest Ford officiating.
Burial will follow at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church Cemetery, in Fenwick, under the direction of Robert D. Mackel and Sons Funeral Home.
Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. today at the funeral home.
Josie was born April 21, 1963, the daughter of Josephine Fleming and John Hawkins Jr. At an early age she confessed and gave her life to Christ and was baptized at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church under the guidance of the late Rev. R.J. Johnson.
She was a 1981 graduate of North Natchez High School where she was elected Miss North Natchez. She was also a graduate of Natchez Junior College and attended Draughon’s Business College in Jackson. Following graduation, she married Dexter Ransom and to this union one son was born, Keathon DaRell Ransom. Despite spending most of her adult life traveling with her family because her husband served in the military, Josie took pride in her role as a wife, but mostly as a mother. She remained close with friends and family throughout her world travels. In 2005, she and her family relocated permanently to Natchez where she once again united with her family and friends.
Josie was fun loving, warm and a caring individual who always greeted you a smile. Her love of life and people was apparent in the way she lived her life. She was an inspiration to everyone she knew.
She was preceded in death by her father; one brother, Arthur Lee Fleming; grandmother, Mary “Jaint” Mock Fleming; grandfather, Howard Fleming; two uncles; and one aunt.
Survivors include her beloved son; her mother; four brothers, Donald Fleming and wife, Rosetta, Sylvester Fleming, Dennis Fleming, all of Natchez, and Melvin Fleming and wife, Delores, of Atlanta; five sisters, Bobbie Hinson, Rebecca Fleming, Nora Brannon, all of Natchez, Shirley White and husband, Kenneth, of Pine Bluff, Ark., and Mary Foster and husband, Zachary, of Baton Rouge; a number of nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends; special aunts, Eva Calvin and Geneva Jackson; and friends, Walter Johnson and Valencia Smith.
Pallbearers will be friends and family.