Edna Mcguire Gilliland

Mrs. Edna McGuire Gilliland, 96, of Macon passed away at the Beehive Home in Starkville, MS on October 8, 2022. A private family graveside service will be held at Greenwood Cemetery in West Point, MS. Memorials are requested to be made to First Baptist Church P.O. Box 510 Macon, MS 39361.

Edna McGuire was born in West Point, MS on November 7, 1925 to the late William Filmore McGuire Sr and Edna Holley McGuire. She attended school in the West Point School System and graduated at age 17 with honors. She held various small jobs while a teenager, including being a secretary to the President of Knickerbocker Manufacturing Company, a position she held until moving to Macon after marrying Charles T. Gilliland, Jr on August 15, 1958. She was a member of First Baptist Church in Macon and once attended Sunday School for 18 years in a row without ever being absent. Mrs. Gilliland was very active in her church and, being one of the first five persons to receive all five teacher’s certificates from the Southern Baptist Convention, taught a preschool Sunday school class for many years. She was a member of the Democratic Executive Committee and a past president of the Macon Pilot Club. She worked most of her life as a secretary and later Secretary /Manager of the Noxubee County Chamber of Commerce. Mrs. Gilliland’s hobbies included reading her Bible, watching football and baseball and, in earlier times, going deer hunting with her husband and grandsons. Mrs. Gilliland passed into Heaven on October 8, 2022 at the Beehive House in Starkville, MS. She was 96 years of age.

Mrs. Edna Gilliland is survived by her three daughters: Betty Poag of Madison, MS, Charlene (Charles) Renfrow  of Madison, MS and Rebecca (Clayton) Anderson of Columbus, MS. She also leaves behind seven grandchildren: 15 great-grandchildren and 7 great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, one sister, one brother and one son-in-law.