It is with great sadness and bittersweet joy that the family of Edna Correne Nichols announces her passing on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, at the age of 91, in Pampa.
Services will be at 2:00 PM Friday, January 14, 2022, at the Memory Gardens Mausoleum with Pastor Paul Nachtigall of Highland Baptist Church, officiating. Burial will follow at Memory Gardens Cemetery under the direction of Carmichael-Whatley Funeral Directors and Crematory.
Correne was born on August 21, 1930 in Old Mobeetie to Jay Daudie and Magnolia Texas Mize. The doctor didn’t expect little 1.5 pound “Baby Girl Mize” to make it through the night, and her parents didn’t give her the name “Edna Correne” until almost a week later. Correne grew up enjoying time with and learning to sew from her grandmother, Correne Howard, and she could “work a buttonhole” by the time she was five years old. Her love of sewing and creating for others continued well into her 80’s.
Correne was part way through her sophomore year at Pampa High School when she met the love of her life, Milton Theodore Nichols of Amarillo on a blind date to the Pampa versus Borger football game in the fall of 1948. She married Milton on December 5, 1948, and they were married 53 years before his passing in 2002.
Correne worked as a dental assistant and later at Highland General Hospital as a nurse’s aid. She worked as a seamstress at the Marie Foundation and a drapery shop in Pampa. She also worked as a housekeeper for several families. In her 80’s, she worked as a personal, full-time care assistant for two families with elderly loved ones. Her passions were fishing, camping, bowling, bingo, puzzles, and dominoes. She loved to sew, and she had a booth at Chautauqua and other craft fairs for many years. She prided herself in not being a worrier. “It all comes out in the wash,” she would say. Her farewell adages were “Be good,” and “You behave.”
Correne is preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Milton; a sister, Marie Parsley; a brother, J.D. Mize; a son, Jerry Nichols; a daughter, Rose Johnson; granddaughter, Valorie Unruh; and grandson, Roger Nichols.
She is survived by two daughters, Janice Trusty and husband Clyde, and Peggy Rodriguez and husband Domingo, all of Pampa; a son-in-law, Chris Johnson and wife Jean Ann of Pampa; a daughter-in-law, Sandra Nichols; nine grandchildren, Carol Trusty, Jeffrey Trusty, and Amy Doucette, all of Pampa, Richard Trusty of Indiana, Ross Johnson and Bryan Johnson, both of Amarillo, Scott Johnson of Oklahoma, Angela Garcia of Lubbock, and Andrea Smith of Lakeway; twenty-four great-grandchildren; three great-great-grandchildren; and a brother-in-law, Winsett Nichols of Key Largo, Florida.
Please sign the online register at www.carmichael-whatley.com.
