MARGARET W. FARIS Margaret Ward Faris departed this life on August 11, 2014. Visitation will be held from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 13, at Memorial Funeral Home. A graveside service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 14, at Friendship Cemetery, with Dr. Shawn Parker officiating. Mrs. Faris was born August 12, 1913, in Houston, Mississippi, to Rufus Alexander Ward and Mary Etta Huffman Ward. She moved with her family to Columbus in 1921 and graduated from S.D. Lee High School and Mississippi State College for Women where she was a member of Phi Gamma Mu National Honorary Society. Following her graduation from M.S.C.W., she taught fourth grade at Franklin Academy until her marriage to Frank Howard Faris in 1935. After living in Georgia, North Carolina, and elsewhere in Mississippi, she and her husband returned to Columbus in 1972. She was a member of First Baptist Church, the National Society of Colonial Dames XVII Century, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and she was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution for more than 50 years. As a 1934 graduate of M.S.C.W., she was a member of the charter class of Golden Girls inducted in 1984. Her husband of 72 years, Frank Howard Faris, and her six siblings, Nannie Kate Ward Smith, Naomi Ward Moody, Ralph Rogers Ward, Lucian Alexander Ward, Marietta Ward McCarter, and Rufus Alexander Ward preceded her in death. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Frank Howard Faris, Jr., and Lee Bergeron Faris, and a number of nieces and nephews. The family wishes to thank her devoted caregivers, assistants, and companions, Mary Blunt, Sebrina Henry, Brittney Perkins, and Lilia Sparks, and the staff at Trinity Personal Care. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Palmer Home for Children, Post Office Box 746, Columbus, MS, 39703; the Mississippi University for Women Foundation, 1100 College Street, MUW-1618, Columbus, MS 39701; or a charity of the donor's choice.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Margaret Ward Faris, please visit our flower store.
