Jan. 17, 1928 – Dec. 23, 2019

VIDALIA— Services for Gertrude F. Ratcliff, 91, of Vidalia, who died Monday, Dec. 23, 2019, at Camelot Leisure Living in Ferriday, will be 11 a.m. Monday at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic, 503 Texas Street in Vidalia, the Rev. Joseph Xavier and the Rev. Paul Kunnumpuram officiating.

Burial will follow at the Natchez City Cemetery under the direction of Laird Funeral Home.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. until the services Monday at the church.

Ms. Gertrude was born Jan. 17, 1928, in Ferriday, the daughter of Jake Frank Fitt and Mary A. Dimontino Fitt.

She was an LPN/Private Duty Nurse for more than 40 years in the Miss-Lou.  Ms. Gertrude worked at the Natchez Charity Hospital, with Dr. Hall Ratcliffe Sr. of Ferriday and for many patients under the care of Dr. Clifford Tillman of Natchez.

After retiring from nursing, Ms. Gertrude began serving as Sacristan at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Vidalia, where she devoted countless hours each week doing the Lord’s work wherever needed — serving in that capacity for 35 years until her health started failing.

Ms. Gertrude was preceded in death by her parents; stepmother, Alcienie K. Fitt; three brothers, William J. Fitt, Joseph Fitt and Johnny Fitt; three sisters, Susie Fitt, Edna Fitt Irby and Emily Fitt Downs; and three stepsisters, Florence Tyler, Bertie May Vicknair and Lillian Butler.

Those left to cherish her memory are nephew, Alex Vicknair and wife, Sylvia, of Norco, Louisiana; nieces, Anita Hinton Jovel of Vidalia, Martha Evans and husband, Mike, of Covington, Louisiana, Gladys Griffin and husband, C.V., of Charleston, South Carolina and June Reeves and husband, Hank, of Mer Rouge, Louisiana; and a number of other nieces, nephews and friends.

The family would like to give heartfelt thanks to Ms. Gertrude’s very special friends, Liz Brooking, the Rev. Joseph Xavier, Corinne Randazzo, Pat Stein and Alan Wingfield, as well as her entire extended church family.

Special thanks are also extended to Camelot Leisure Living of Ferriday, especially Ms. Shirley Perkins, for providing a nice home-away-from home for Ms. Gertrude over the last two and one-half years and to Riverland Medical Center of Ferriday and Encompass Health Hospice of Vidalia for their compassionate, palliative care.

Pallbearers will be nephews and friends.

Honorary pallbearers will be Bill McDonough, Cliff Stein, Cecil Brooking, Charles Garrity, George Murray and Lloyd Songe.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the OLL Altar Society, P.O. Box 460, Vidalia, LA  71373 or to St. Jude Children’s Hospital/ALSAC, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.

Online condolences may be sent to the family at lairdfh.com.