Royce Ann Butler
November 24, 1949 — January 27, 2020
Royce Ann Atkins Butler, age 70, of Columbus, MS, passed away January 27, 2020, at Mission Hospital of Ashville, NC.
Funeral services will be Friday, January 31, 2020, at 11:00 AM at Memorial Gunter Peel Chapel, 716 2nd Ave. North location, with Police Chief Fred Shelton officiating. The interment will immediately follow at Vaughn’s Cemetery in Steens,MS. Visitation will be from 10:00 AM until the time of the service. Memorial Gunter Peel Funeral Home & Crematory, 2nd Ave. North location,has been entrusted with the arrangements.
Mrs. Butler was born November 24, 1949, in Albany, GA, to the late Roy Lee and Helen Louise Hodges Atkins. She was retired from the Columbus Police Department after 25 years. Mrs. Butler was a member of Wesley United Methodist Church. She enjoyed her pet birds and was known as the Bird Lady.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her sister, Ellena J. Hixson.
Survivors include her daughters, Vickie Stanley of Marion, NC, and Tammy Stanley Bates and her husband, Tim, of Pensacola, FL; sisters, Dorothy Sawaryn and her husband, Greg, of Maben, MS, and Mary Wood of Columbus, MS; brother, Sam Atkins of Flowood, MS; 5 grandchildren, Amber, Tiffany, Jennifer, Julia and Haley; and 7 great-grandchildren.
Pallbearers will be Eddie Hawkins, Tim Bates, Joey Davis, Josh Harter, Steven Price and Greg Sawaryn.
Memorials may be made to the Columbus Lowndes Humane Society, P.O. Box 85, Columbus, MS 39703.
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