When Deloris and James Hines Stocks Sr. started Stocks Funeral Home, the matriarch did whatever it took to run the operation.
She picked up bodies. She made funeral arrangements and consoled grieving families. Relatives say the business was simply an extension of her personality and caring heart.
"She always wanted to treat everybody fair, and with the same courtesy and respect," said a son, Ronald Stocks of Decatur. "She played a major role in the building of the business. We served a lot of people who didn’t have any money and should have been indigent burials."
In 2002, Deloris Cannon Stocks was diagnosed with lupus. On Sunday, she died from complications of the disease at Emory University Hospital. She was 66. The funeral will be noon Friday at Bethesda Cathedral of The Apostolic Faith, Inc. in Decatur. Stocks Funeral Home and Kirkwood Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Stocks was born in Eatonton, the oldest of three children. The family moved to Atlanta in the late 1940s. She married her first husband, James Hill Johnson, at an early age. The couple had three children.
Mrs. Stocks attended Fulton County schools, but didn't graduate. Instead, she earned a GED and eventually became a licensed practical nurse for DeKalb General Hospital.
In later years, she married James Stocks Sr., her husband of 37 years. The couple had two sons.
In the early 1970s, Mr. Stocks expressed interest in becoming a funeral home director. Stocks Funeral Home and Kirkwood Chapel opened at 1912 Boulevard Dr. , in 1971. It's been in business ever since.
Several years after it opened, Mrs. Stocks also became a state certified funeral home director. Relatives credit the family matriarch with growing the business, now located at 1970 Hosea Williams Dr.
"During that time in the 70s, they didn't have a mortuary school here," her husband said. "She went before the state certification board and passed the written and oral test. I tell you, she was my right hand. She did everything, and I am going to miss her."
"She was there when we needed help with everything," said a son, James Stocks Jr.of Decatur. "Her thing was taking care of everybody, inside the funeral home and out of it."
Additional survivors include another son, James Harold Johnsonof Stone Mountain; two daughters, Katherine Saulsberry of Fort Lauderdale and Janice E. Wilson of Covington; a sister, Letitia Dowellof Villa Rica; a brother, Marvin Rasheed Cannon of Decatur; and 10 grandchildren.
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
