Vernis Jean (Laws) Norris

Vernis Jean Laws Norris, homemaker, accomplished seamstress, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and friend, died of complications from lymphoma cancer in Tallahassee, Florida, on February 22nd, 2023. She was 75.

Jean was born in Yancey County, North Carolina, the daughter of Altha Lovada Arrowood and Roy David Laws, on May 15th, 1947. She spent her youth and a portion of her adult life in Green Mountain, NC, later living with the love of her life, husband Billy Joe Norris, in Chipley, Panama City, and Tallahassee, Florida, and in Thomasville, Georgia. They were married for 39 years. Jean was a lifetime member of Zion Baptist Church in Green Mountain. Bill and Jean enjoyed loving relationships with their entire church family.

Jean was loved by many for her dry sense of humor, her infectious laugh, her giving spirit, her creativity with dress-making, doll-making, cross-stitching and quilting, her cooking, and her incredible fudge-making. She loved gardening and often said she’d never met a plant she didn’t like. She adored her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Preceding her in death were her parents Roy and Lovie, and her husband Billy Joe, who passed October 17th, 2022.  Jean is survived by her daughters, Sherry Rock Meadows (Terry Wilkinson) and Teri Rosa (Tom); son, Joey Norris; sisters: Norma Lee Fox (Daniel), Jena Vee Blevins (Earl) and Stella June Cooper; grandchildren: Sean Roy Meadows, Ryan Douglas Meadows (Dale), Ben Wilkinson (Zhao Han), Allyson Dlugokeski (Corey), Brent Rosa, and Courtney Sinclair (JP); and six great-grandchildren. Also surviving is a host of loving nieces and nephews.

A service in Jean’s memory will be held at Holcombe Brothers Funeral Home at 501 E. Main Street, Burnsville, NC, at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, March 17th, 2023. Family and friends will gather for a potluck lunch at Zion Baptist Church Fellowship Hall on Lower Pig Pen Road, Green Mountain, NC on the following day, March 18th, at noon.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Jean’s memory may be made to the American Cancer Society at http://donate3.cancer.org or by mail to P.O. Box 6704, Hagerstown, MD, 21741.

Holcombe Brothers Funeral Home is respectfully serving the Norris family.

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