Mayme Vera Strange's Obituary
On April 6, 2025, our mother Mayme Vera Strange died peacefully in Fayetteville, Arkansas. While our hearts are broken, we are comforted by the facts that our mother’s brain is now whole, our mother’s body is now free from pain, our mother is reunited with our daddy, and we will see them again one day.
Mayme Vera Stone Strange was born April 17, 1937, in Hattiesburg, MS. Her parents, Daniel and Ruth Lloyd Stone, resided in Gulfport, Mississippi, and raised their family there. Mayme was a true child of the Gulf Coast. She enjoyed the beach, spending time at the Ship Island Lighthouse, socializing with Kessler soldiers, and working at (and eating!) Stone Ice Cream, the family business. After graduating from Gulfport High School in 1954 – she was younger than her classmates, for she skipped first grade – she exhibited her adventurous spirit and love of education when she enrolled in Louisiana College in Pineville, LA, which during the 1950s was definitely getting away from home!
It was during her college days that she met the love of her life, our dad, Bennett Strange. Mayme Stone and Bennett Strange, due to alphabetically assigned seating in mandatory daily chapel services at LC, sat next to each other for four years of college. Initially she was adamant that the red-headed young man from Mansfield, LA, was not her type, but, during their senior year of college, they realized they were in love. A year after graduating from LC, Bennett and Mayme married and remained married until death parted them in 2008, when Bennett died from pancreatic cancer.
Back to Mayme’s adventurous spirit and love of education. Our mom and dad ended up settling in Mansfield, Louisiana, after spending the first years of their marriage in Hattiesburg, MS. While in Hattiesburg, mom and dad not only welcomed their first two children, Jo-Ruth and Vera-Zee, but also mom took advantage of dad’s teaching at the University of Southern Mississippi to feed her love of learning by taking additional college courses. In 1966 mom and dad moved to Mansfield, LA, and mom began teaching at Mansfield High School. Mom completed her master’s degree and additional graduate hours at Northwestern State University. Mom and dad welcomed two additional children, Clint and Danya-Lee, while living and working in Mansfield. Mom worked at MHS until she retired in 2001.Retirement did not stop her from teaching, for she traveled with dad to Karamay, China, and taught English for a semester; upon her return to Mansfield, she began a part-time teaching stint at Central School Corp in Grand Cane, LA. If you had mom as an English teacher, you were one of the lucky ones. She had an incredible understanding of all things grammatical and a love of literature. If you had mom as a Speech teacher/coach, you were one of the lucky ones. She had a natural dramatic demeanor and a competitive spirit. If you had mom as a typing/keyboarding teacher, you were one of the lucky ones. No student of hers will ever forget the home keys! If you had mom as a Driver’s Ed teacher, you were one of the lucky ones. She always turned her driving lessons into local trivia and history lessons.
The real lucky ones were us, her children, for we had her as a mom.
Mayme was preceded in death by her forever boyfriend, favorite traveling companion, and husband of 49 years, Buford Bennett Strange; her parents, Daniel and Ruth Stone; and an infant son. She is survived by her four children: Jo-Ruth Strange Mosteller (Bobby) of Fayetteville, AR; Vera-Zee Strange Morgan (Mickey) of Mansfield, LA; Clinton Buford Strange (Julie) of Hoover, AL; and Danya-Lee Strange Spagnuolo (Frankie) of Alabaster, AL; grandchildren: Bennett Mosteller (Melody), Ryan Mosteller (Abbie), Mayme Mosteller Riggs (Demoni), Zack Stone Crawley, Mia Spagnuolo, Mary Margaret Strange, Samuel Bennett Strange, and Griffith Davis Strange; and four great-grandchildren.
We have decided that mom will be memorialized at Butterfield Trail Village in Fayetteville, AR, on 2:00 pm Friday, April 18, 2025 in the Performance Hall at Butterfield Trail Village. Mom was a resident at BTV since 2010. We ask that in lieu of flowers – mom was never a plant or flower person – please donate to the church or charity of your choice, for that is something that she would have encouraged. As she always reminded us: “Be ye kind.”
To place an online tribute, please visit www.bernafuneralhomes.com
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