Yvonne Baugh Whitesides

January 16, 1930 - March 2, 2017

Yvonne Baugh Whitesides age 87, of Columbia, Tennessee passed away on March 2, 2017 at NHC-Maury Regional Transitional Care.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 25, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. at Freeman Farm in Columbia, Tennessee, 753 Carter’s Creek Pike, with Michael Wickham officiating.

She was born in Dallas, TX on January 16, 1930, to the late Claude Alfred Baugh and the late Bertha Thorpe Baugh. After the passing of her birth mother, Yvonne was raised by her adopted mother, the late Ruby Campbell Baugh.

Yvonne was a talented commercial artist who worked for several prominent firms, and also worked for many years as a freelance artist. She was a graduate of Kilgore College having earned an Associate Degree in Art, and she was a proud member of the Kilgore Rangerettes.

Yvonne saw beauty in everything around her. She loved to paint and appreciated all of the arts, music and theater, and she loved to travel. She was an accomplished seamstress, and could turn a simple sewing project into a work of art. She also cherished the time spent working in her garden and planting flowers of all kinds.

But Yvonne’s greatest passion in life was her family. She enjoyed family gatherings more than anything and she took great interest and pride in the day-to-day activities and accomplishments of each member of her family.

She always appreciated even the smallest kindness or the simplest gift, and was quick to tell you so with sweet words and a warm hug. She had an infectious smile and a delightful sense of humor, and she will be missed more than words can describe. But her family rejoices because Heaven became a sweeter place on the day the Lord called his servant, Yvonne, home.

She is survived by her husband William Edward Whitesides, Jr. of Columbia, three sons; William Edward Whitesides III of Santa Fe, NM, John Claude Whitesides and Charles Franklin Whitesides, both of Olive Branch, MS, three daughters; Geri Ann Cox, Gina Lea Smith, and Yvonne Michelle Tribull, all of Columbia, six grandchildren; Christina Smith, Holly Freeman, Jack Fletcher, Cheryl Smith, Jeanne Whitesides, Charlie Whitesides and ten great-grandchildren.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a sister, Geraldine Collins, a brother, Brian Baugh, and a daughter, Lula Renee Whitesides.