Amy Sanderson Sanders

Amy Sanderson Sanders
April 11, 1940 ~ July 5, 2023

She was born Amy Charlene May to Percy Iddo May and Rena Drummond May in Tylertown. She grew up in the Union community of Walthall County as the fifth of six children and the youngest daughter. Her early days were filled with church activities including GAs, BYPU, and other church activities at Union Baptist Church where she came to know Christ and acquired a love for missions. She attended Tylertown schools and graduated from Tylertown High.
At age 15, she contracted a light case of polio and was hospitalized in Vicksburg. She came to love and admire those who cared for her. Realizing how vital their profession was, she decided to become a nurse. She entered the Gilfoy School of Nursing at Mississippi Baptist Hospital in Jackson and graduated from their three year (year round) registered nurse program in 1961. She worked at several hospitals and in 1964 moved back to Tylertown to help care for her parents.
She met the pastor of Salem Baptist Church, Bob Sanderson, while he was a patient in Tylertown Hospital. He was recently widowed. They married in June of 1965. Together, they served churches in Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida. There were 10 fulltime churches, four part-time and interim pastorates, and one director of missions position. Following Bob’s death in 2003, she married Jim Sanders in 2005. He was a bi-vocational pastor, farrier, and Texas cowboy. He passed away in 2013.
She worked as a nurse for most of her adult life using her skills at hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies as well as countless youth camps, mission trips, and other ministry related assignments. She was a nurse by profession and a pastor’s wife by calling. She loved the church and particularly missions. She taught numerous Sunday School classes, Bible studies, discipleship groups, WMU devotionals, mission VBS lessons and even directed preschool ministries.
She is survived by a sister Elizabeth May Bennett of Kokomo, a brother Tommy Joe May and his wife Wanda of Hattiesburg, and the four children she chose when she married Bob: Bonnie Britton and her husband Robert of Columbus, GA; Bobby Sanderson and his wife Judy of Columbus; Beth Havard and her husband Carl of Mobile, AL; and Tim Sanderson and his wife Melissa of Centerville, TN; nine grandchildren: Robert Deric Britton (Bethany); Stephen Dallas Britton (Leslie); Robert Jewell Sanderson, III (Kim); David Scott Sanderson (Maggie); Justin Ryan Havard; Jessica Lauren Havard; Jared David Havard (Tayler); Stephen Timothy Sanderson (Emily); and Melody Lynn Crocker (Tripp); 32 great grandchildren, and two great, great grandchildren.
Funeral services were July 10, 2023, at Calvary Baptist Church, Waynesboro, interment at Serenity Gardens Cemetery of Waynesboro.
In lieu of flowers the family requests that memorials be given to Calvary Baptist Church, Waynesboro, or The American Alzheimer’s Assn. (alz.org)
Freeman Funeral Home of Waynesboro was in charge of arrangements.