Ceola Chambliss

Ceola Chambliss was born on January 31, 1931, to the union of Oscar and Addie Henry in the community of Mount Zion, Arkansas, in Union County. She graduated in 1949 from Urbana High School in the Union County School System. After high school, she relocated to Oakland, California, and enrolled at San Francisco State College in San Francisco, California, where she completed two years of study.

Ceola accepted Christ as her personal Savior at an early age and was baptized at the Mt. Zion #2 Missionary Baptist Church in Urbana, Arkansas. Her membership with Mt. Zion #2 extended almost eighty (80) years. For many of those years, she was diligently involved with Mission and Sunday school.

Ceola was united in holy matrimony to Walter Chambliss on June 12, 1957. The two lived and traveled across this nation while Walter completed his military career of twenty-five (25) years in service of his country in the United States Army. The two celebrated sixty (60) years of marital blessings at the time of his death on February 1, 2018.

Ceola worked many years at the El Dorado Country Club. Southern Folders in El Dorado later employed her, and she retired from the Shipping and Receiving Department of that company.

Ceola enjoyed fishing, basketball, traveling, and displaying her culinary skills, especially baking her acclaimed Million Dollar Pound and German Chocolate cakes. Ceola always displayed a love for her family and friends that had no bounds.

On July 20, 2022, the angels of the Lord journeyed to The Rehab Suites of Magnolia Crossing in Houston, Texas, and escorted this humble servant to eternal rest.

Ceola is preceded in death by her husband, Walter Chambliss; parents, Oscar and Addie Henry; brothers, Otis Lee, Clemi T., Ellis B., and Ollie B. Henry; and sisters, Ruby Dell Simpkins and Lurie Mae Barnes.

Ceola Chambliss is survived by her son, Lawerence McKinney, Jr., daughter-in-love Roxie McKinney, and granddaughter, Chantel Adé McKinney, all of Houston, Texas; sister Iola Bradley of Ashtabula, Ohio and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.