Ouida Frances Gainous Dow
December 6, 1925 – November 29, 2015
Funeral services for Ouida Frances Gainous Dow, 89, are on Saturday, December 5, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. at Spring Hill United Methodist Church, Whigham, Georgia. The family will receive friends immediately before the service at 1:00 p.m. in the church. Rev. Marsha Emery will officiate. Ouida will be placed in Spring Hill United Methodist Church Cemetery beside her father, Henry Gainous and her mother, Essie Launa Morrison Gainous. Ouida passed into everlasting peace on Sunday, November 29, 2015 at Glen Cove Manor Nursing Pavilion in Panama City, Florida.
Pallbearers are Michael Craig Dow, Matthew Steele Dow, Wayne Morrison, Neal Connell, Lana Tester, Donald Parker and honorary pallbearer is Jeffrey Dow.
Ouida was born and raised in the Cairo, Georgia area where she graduated from Cairo High School. As a young woman she worked for Southern Bell as an operator and was praised by co-workers for being the company’s best long-distance operator. She daringly took a job with the company and moved to Atlanta, Georgia where she met and married the father of her four son’s Michael, Nick, Steele and Jeff. She loved her boys and her family dearly, and they her.
Ouida had a great sense of humor and loved dressing “smartly” in bright colors and fashionable styles. Sadly, at age 27, Ouida was struck by a devastating illness that robbed her of her freedom and independence. Yet, through it all, she always thought about her sons and asked all who visited her about her boys, her sisters, and other relatives.
She is survived by: three sons, Michael Craig Dow (Patsy), Matthew Steele Dow, and Jeffrey Dow (Joanie); three sisters, Christelle Mills, Annelle Champion (Curtis), and Billie Scott; many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other relatives.
Ouida is preceded in death by: her parents, Henry and Launa Morrison Gainous; three sisters, Kathryn Connell, Louise Tester, and Carolyn Ann Gainous; one son, Nicholas Eric Dow; and three grandchildren, Christopher Steele Dow, Stephanie Dow, and Charity Dow.
Ouida will be laid to rest on Saturday, December 5, 2015, one day before her 90th birthday. The family will receive friends at the church at 1:00 p.m. prior to the 2:00 p.m. service.
