On October 17, 1926, our beloved earth angel, Mary Anna Perry Knowles was born to McKinley and Mitta Smith Perry in Rossville, Tennessee. The joyful arrival of their precious gift from God was also celebrated by Baby Mary’s older sisters, Dora and Beatrice. Four years later, the birth of twin girls, Ollie and Mollie, completed the Perry family circle. Their father, McKinley, treated his five girls like queens. The twins immediately became Mary’s first “patients” as she took them under her wings and compassionately cared for them with God-given nursing skills that far surpassed her age.

Mary (nicknamed Mae) and Beatrice (nicknamed Bee) were inseparable. Together, they provided excellent end-of-life care for their parents and their three sisters as, one-by-one, her loving family joined that great cloud of Heavenly witnesses. With profound sorrow, Mae released her precious sister, Bee, into the care of the Lord in 1994, thus becoming her family’s last queen standing. Fulfilling the covenant He made with our majestic matriarch, Jesus came and received her unto Himself on Thursday, October 10, 2024. Now she is and forever will be with the Lord!

Mary had a hunger for learning and excelled in her studies during her formative years, especially in the culinary arts. By the time she was nine years old, she was the primary cook of the family. And what a cook she was! Even today, her turnip greens, fried chicken, cornbread dressing, sweet potato pies and jelly cakes are legendary.

Mary accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior at the age of eleven at St. Francis M. B. Church at Parkin, AR, under the leadership of the Reverend Buckner, and her relationship with the Lord thrived from that point on. The Lord bestowed an over-abundance of wisdom, graciousness, generosity, and compassion upon her throughout her lifetime. She married Rev. Daniel Webster Knowles on December 24, 1947, and together they raised six children in the reverence and admonition of the Lord. Sadly, they lost two other children—baby Juanita and baby Roosevelt, at birth. Rev. and Sis. Knowles served as Pastor and First Lady of Lake Grove Missionary Baptist Church at Blackfish Lake, Arkansas, from 1953 to 1980, when he retired due to failing health. They were married for thirty-seven wonderful years at the time of his passing in 1984.

Mrs. Knowles was a founding member of Prince of Peace M. B. Church in South Memphis. As she did at Lake Grove on second and fourth Sundays, she served at Prince of Peace on first and third Sundays as a Sunday School teacher, choir director, and lead soloist under the leadership of Rev. Rev. J. L. Ward, husband of her beloved sister Beatrice, until his death in 1983. She then served under Rev. Joe E. Cooper, her current pastor (who was like a son to her), and she remained a supportive and beloved Mother of the Church until she moved from earth to glory.

Additionally, Mother Knowles offered her gentle hands and loving heart to her children and some of her children’s friends as a baby-sitter par excellence. The mothers would drop their babies off at Mother Knowles’ home on the way to work and when they returned, they were not only greeted by their happy babies but were often invited to sit down for a hot, home-cooked meal. Going above and beyond, she once served as Au Pair extraordinaire when she stayed in the home of a good friend of one of her daughters for a week because the friend’s own mother lived in another state and could not be with her during the birth of her first child. During one season of her life, she ministered as an unofficial mid-wife, delivering three babies for neighboring families. Ultimately, she worked as a skilled and respected certified nurses’ assistant for Wesley Highland Manor here in Memphis until her retirement, thus fulfilling her prophetic childhood practice of caring for the sick.

Of equal significance, Mrs. Knowles served as a life coach decades before the title gained prominence. Because of her exemplary and consistent Christian walk, her listening ear and wise counsel were solicited by numerous preachers, distinguished pastors, lay leaders, young women and men who knew the Lord, and young women and men who wanted to know Him. As her son-in-love, Reverend Lee I. Brown, Jr, pastor of Fredonia Baptist Church in Stanton, TN, lovingly reflected, “Mom was the creme-de-la-creme when it comes to the standard of a good mother. Many people talk about how they had a good mother, and I’m not trying to diminish the standard of anyone’s mother, but I have never met anyone like Mary Anna Knowles. Exceptional is an understatement…She was 100% the same every time you were in her presence. Her passion to make sure you were comfortable cannot be mimicked or duplicated. Her goal when she met you was to make sure you left her better than you were when you came. She was the epitome of excellence as it relates to compassion. Her desire was always to let you know what love looked like and to make sure you felt the love that she was able to give.”

In addition to her late husband, infant children, and birth family named above, Mrs. Knowles was also preceded in death by one adult daughter, Sarah Mae Knowles Parks, one grandson, Rev. Randal Thompson, and one great-granddaughter, Nya Smith. Mrs. Knowles is survived by five children: Thomas Lee Hughes (Barbara), Carol Beatrice Knowles Williams, Mittie Ann Knowles Carey (Jesse), Deborah Knowles Brown (Lee), and Daniel Webster Knowles, Jr; twenty grandchildren: Ronald Hughes (Honey), Steven Young (Nicole), LaTrina Hughes Bowen (Neville) Stacy Hughes (Olivia), Jason Hughes (Mary), Mercedes Hughes, Marquel Brooks, Sean Alexander, Stacey Knowles, Ryan Williams (Sharon), Deidra Williams, DeanzaWilliams Chaffin (De’Mario), Rickey Smith, Rodney Smith (Lisa), Marcus Smith, DeChundra Knowles, Eric Thompson, Brandon Brown, Britne’ Lauderdale (Rolandas), and Tanina Knowles; fifty-nine great-grandchildren; forty-six great-great grandchildren; two great-great-great grandchildren; a Goddaughter, Mrs. Emma Jones (Herman- deceased) of Oakland, CA, two Godsons, Christopher Thomas and Michael Hale, a beloved sister-cousin, Mrs. Priscilla Green, and a host of other cousins, nieces, nephews, and other relatives and friends to mourn her passing and celebrate her marvelous life.

The family will receive friends Friday, October 18, from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. at R. S. Lewis Funeral Home 2944 Walnut Grove Rd. Family hour will be Saturday, October 19, 2024 from 9:00 a.m. until 9:55 a.m. with a Celebration of Life to follow at 10:00 a.m. at St. Andrew A.M.E. Church 867 S. Parkway E.

Interment will follow in Paradise Garden 184 Minnis Dr, Edmondson, AR 72332.