Ruby Bennett

Ruby MacDonald Bennett, alias Dora Lee MacDonald, was born March 9, 1927 to Georgia and James MacDonald. Someone mistakenly filed the name Doralee on her birth certificate and there it remained even though her parents and everyone she knew including her children called her Ruby. She attended school as Ruby, married as Ruby, and registered for Social Security as Ruby. They’re in lay the rub! Her birth certificate didn’t match her Social Security card. In a clandestine trip to Jackson, she coerced her son-in-law, her Ward to take her to the records office to have her name officially changed. Cheryl and Herb were sworn to secrecy.

Ruby was one of nine children having four sisters and four brothers. She married Kasey Obada Bennett and raised three daughters. She always put her family first and made a point of spending time with her grandchildren, siblings, nieces, and nephews.

When her daughters were young, she made their clothes, including Cheryl‘s wedding dress. She raised a garden that supplied her family with delicious meals, including butter beans, which Joan hated. Her chocolate and lemon pies were requested at all get-togethers, reunions, and holidays.

She was creative. She built furniture, paneled walls, and did toll painting a fruit that looked good enough to eat.

She had a green thumb and loved growing flowers. There was nothing she couldn’t do and she loved trying new things. She loved playing games, reading, jigsaw puzzles, and WordSearch puzzles. In spite of all that, she worked a full-time job at the shirt factory in Winona until it closed, then a 40 hour week, 3 to 11 shift at heat craft until she retired.

Upon retiring, she joined a travel club out of Winona and took several group tours of the east and West Coast and Alaska. She loved visiting her daughters wherever they lived. She talked Liz into a road trip to Wisconsin to visit Joan. She loved family reunions and always made a point to visit her sister Helen, and other siblings whenever she could.

She loves staying busy and being useful. Barbara accommodated her by assigning her the task of folding clothes this became her job and you had better not do it!

Most of all she loved our Lord Jesus Christ, and was a faithful member of the Duckhill Baptist Church until she moved to Amory, where she became a member of the Meadowwood Baptist Church. When she was unable to live by herself, she moved to Nolensville, Tennessee with her daughter, Barbara, and son-in-law James Funderburg, where she joined the Concord village Baptist Church, formally the covenant Baptist Church.

She is survived by her daughters Barbara Funderburg (James D.) Nolensville, Tennessee; Cheryl Ward (Herb) Brandon, Mississippi; Donna Joan Stewart (Kent) Amory, Mississippi; one sister, Helen Worsham (Winford) Gore Springs, Mississippi; grandchildren, Sheri Townsend(Stevan) Nolensville, Tennessee; Tony Funderburg (Kay) Sevierville, Tennessee; Matt Ward, Seattle, Washington. Great grandchildren, Kasey and Ashton Funderburg, Seth and Jillian Townsend..

She was proceeded in death by her husband, Obadiah, brothers and sisters, Mattie Belle, Mary, Robert, William, Austin, Benny, and Letty; grandson, Craig Wardlaw, and great grandson Joshua Townsend.

She was the best mother anyone could have. We will miss her greatly and look forward to the greatest family reunion yet.

Funeral Services will be held at 2 PM on Sunday, August 30, 2026 at Cleveland Moffett Funeral Home in Amory with Dr. Lloyd Sweatt officiating.  Burial will follow in Amory Masonic Cemetery.  Visitation will be held prior to the service on Sunday from 1 PM until the service hour.