OBITUARY: Jimmie McKinney

Mrs. Jimmie Mathis McKinney age 91, a homemaker of the Elmwood Community entered into everlasting peace into the arms of God, and was pronounced deceased at 6:04 a.m. Saturday morning December 27, 2025 at the Smith County Health and Rehabilitation Center in Carthage where she was admitted from her Horseshoe Bend Lane home on November 20, 2020. She was under the care of Gentiva Hospice of Livingston.

Bro. Tim Frank will officiate and Mike Pettross will deliver the piano musical presence at the 3 p.m. funeral service from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home on Wednesday afternoon December 31th and burial will follow in the Garden of Gethsemane beside her husband Jere at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.

Mrs. McKinney was the third born of eight children and was one of seven daughters and a son of the late Tom Mathis who died at the age of 72 on January 25, 1977 and Carrie Simmons

Thompson Mathis who died at the age of 97 on January 27, 2007 and was born Jimmie Frances Mathis in the Gentry Community of Putnam County on January 14, 1934.

Siblings preceding her in death was her brother, Tommy Ray Mathis Sr. who died October 9, 1998 at the age of 60, and three sisters, Betty Ruth Mathis Elrod who died February 3, 1995 at the age of 65, Mary Dean Mathis Clemons who died June 4,2019 at the age of 87, and Sue Mathis Davis who died July 20, 2023 also at the age of 87.

She attended the Baxter Seminary through the tenth grade.

She was very close to her large and loving family, all of whom were blessed with a mischievous sense of humor.

Mrs. McKinney was united in marriage in Corinth, Mississippi on December 20, 1957 to Elmwood Community native, Jere Beverly McKinney who preceded her in death on May 15, 2016 at the age of 79 following over fifty-eight years of marriage.

Together Jimmie and Jere enjoyed searching for antiques. She was especially fond of flowers and was known to have a talent for growing and nurturing her favorite plants.

Also, she and Jere each possessed a caring, giving and generous spirit and helped many people in their time of need throughout this loving couple’s lives.

Mrs. McKinney was an accomplished seamstress and was a longtime employee of Trousdale Manufacturing in Hartsville before her retiring in 1991.

She was a member of the former Elmwood United Methodist Church as well as was her husband, and there they were deeply involved in all church activities including teaching Sunday School and Bible Study. It was in that little country church that they made many lasting “church family” friends.

She is survived by her only child, a daughter, Pam McKinney, who returned from her home in Arizona over ten years ago to care for her aging parents. Also surviving are three sisters, Karen Mathis Cole, Frankie Mathis Williams and husband Joe, Helen Mathis “Cricket” Boyd and husband Bobby, all of Baxter, and many beloved nieces and nephews.

The McKinney daughter has requested memorials to the St. Jude Children’s Hospital.