Louvern  Lee 

Published 9:14 am Tuesday, February 11, 2025

From sharecropping to entrepreneurship, Louvern Lee made Picayune her home and built a legacy of agape love in her extensive community of family and friends

Louvern Lee never met a stranger and reared generations of God’s children she never birthed. Her life story is a testament on agape love.

Born in Quentin, Miss. (Franklin County) on July 22, 1928 to the late Geneva (Rancifer) and Lee Watts, Louvern lived an honorable life devoted to unconditional kindness, compassion, hard work and barefoot authenticity. Affectionately known near and far as “Aunt Ted,” family and friends will remember her fiery wit, hand-stitched quilts, black coffee you could smell wafting outside her home and famous fried chicken and brim fish from her slow-frying cast iron skillet. 

If you had the privilege of gracing her door, you knew that it was always open to anyone who needed a laugh, a meal, a remedy or a bed.

Louvern peacefully departed this life at her youngest daughter’s home on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. Ever the quintessential homemaker, she leaves a legacy of rooted traditions, genuine care and authentic living, which will carry on in everyone she loved in her 96 years of life.

Louvern married the late Marion Augusta Lee (also known as “Uncle Marion”) and, together, they opened a juke joint called “The Shop” in Quentin. They saved enough money to leave their home village for Picayune, Miss. in the 1950’s where he worked for the Crosby family’s lumber mill and she worked for herself as a laundress, domestic worker and local distiller.

She was a member of Pleasant Valley Baptist Church for over 50 years where she served as an usher, and a member of the Heroines of Jericho. In 1997, she joined Bethlehem Baptist Church under the leadership of the Rev. Louis Thomas.

Louvern Lee was preceded in death by a sister, Rosie Lee Dillon-Daniels; two brothers, JB Watts and Carry Watts; a husband, Marion Augusta Lee Sr.; a son, Marion Augusta Lee Jr., and two grandsons, Dominic Ellis and Carlos Causey Sr.

She is survived by three daughters, Catherine Lee Gaines, Delorise Richards and Louvenia Lynn, all of Picayune; seven grandchildren, Sonia Gaines, Chelsea Frazier, Thomas Gaines Jr., Melonee Gaines, Darain Jackson, Nicholas Lynn and Tammybatha (Tammy) Lee; 11 great-grandchildren, Nicole Lynn Bell, LaQuesha Holmes, Dion Hanna, Carlos Causey Jr., Spencer Littles, Coleman Gaines, Catherine Jointer, Cassandra Frazier, Audrey Griggs, Dakia Jackson, Dymond Jackson and Trinity Herring, and five great-great-grandchildren, Chanciy Lee, Cameron Pittman, Moana Hanna, Khalid Hanna and Dalvin Acker.

Louvern also leaves behind a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and neighbors.

Funeral services will be held at Bethlehem Baptist Church on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025 at 12 p.m., with a public viewing at 11 a.m. The Rev. Louis Thomas is Pastor. Interment will be in Picayune Cemetery. Entrusted to Brown’s Funeral Home. Register Book, Obituary and Driving Direction can be found on our website at www.brownsfuneral homepicayune.com

The community is invited to pay their respects to a true and beloved elder of Picayune and the Southside neighborhood.