Pearl Bess Fultz, a life-long resident of Warren County, is at last at home with Jesus. She died on January 3, 2024, age 95.

Pearl was preceded in death by her parents, Green Byars and Vernia (Swindell) Byars, by her first husband and the father of her children, Robert Bess, by her second husband, Willie Fultz, and by her daughter, Christine Cornett (Mike).

She is survived by her daughter, Linda Gayle McBride (Johnny), by her daughter, Katherine Bess Tugman (David), and by her son, Robert Bess (Angelia) by her grandchildren, Wendy Fruehauf (Eric), Kevin Tugman (Kipton), Allison Johnston, and Ber Bess (Ashley), Quentin Tugman and Ashley Stewart (Michael), and by seventeen great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

Pearl was a long-time member of the Rock Island Presbyterian

Church and also was a teacher for thirty years in the Community Bible Study Group.

Pearl was an accomplished business-person, having owned and run Your Tot to Teen Shoppe in downtown McMinnville for forty-nine years, during which time she managed the store, was its public face, and was the buyer for the store. Many people in town remember Pearl's role in clothing young people and older ones, too. She would also allow customers to buy on lay-a-way (in this she was an innovator) and, occasionally, she would not charge customers who, at the time, could not afford nice clothes for their children.

Pearl spent much of her life living in Rock Island and spent lots of time swimming in the Rocky River. To her children, and then her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she and her husband, Bob, gave the gift of the river, and no one enjoyed it more than her.  In recent years, her great-grandchildren have been known to forsake their electronic devices for a swim in the river or a boat ride on the Rocky. Today, she has descendants who live or have a house on the Rocky, and that was made possible by the foresight of Bob and Pearl and by Pearl's generosity.

Pearl will be sorely missed by her family and by the many friends she has made over the years. She was generous, loving; she never met a stranger; and she was a family person in the best sense of that term. She was rightly famous for her cooking, and she was known far and wide for her fried okra.

Funeral services were conducted January 07, 2024, in the McMinnville Funeral Home Chapel. Barry Boggs officiated. Interment followed at Mt. View Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to Rock Island Presbyterian Church or to a charity of your choice.

Online condolences may be made at www.mcminnvillefuneralhome.com

McMinnville Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements. 931-473-6606.