Lila Gomez Hicks

Lila Gomez Hicks, 80, of Jonesboro passed from this life on Monday, October 12, 2020. She was born to the late Antonio and Prima Gomez on May 2, 1940 near Oruro, Bolivia. Lila was a member of Central Baptist Church and the Agape Sunday School Class with her husband, Earnest. Her life revolved around being involved with her church and church family. Lila loved children, especially her grandchildren and she cared for each of them until they attended school. After her nest was empty again she volunteered with the “Mother’s Day Out” program at Central Baptist Church to love and care for more children. In her free time, Lila actually enjoyed cleaning, laundry, and planting flowers in her yard. When they decided to move to St. Bernard's Village she always loved the special events with her many friends. She loved her life there and expressed how thankful she was for The Village. Lila was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, and friend and she will be greatly missed.

Lila came to the United States in 1964 and later worked as a nurses aide at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis where she often translated for children that came from other countries for treatment. Her love of children is a thread woven throughout her life, and was even the catalyst for her coming to the States. When the children of visiting Methodist missionaries refused to leave Bolivia without their doting caregiver the family asked Lila if she would like to go home with them. She spent many years caring for those four children before moving to Memphis. She frequently spoke of the family's kindness to her and of their service to the orphanage where she and her siblings had lived.

Lila had the least in material things in her youth, but she never desired in having the most. She married the love of her life, Earnest, in 1976 and had one daughter to whom she taught to grow in faith and to love; loving never meaning it had to be returned. Her foundation in this life was The Word of God and she lived it in word and deed. Her family takes comfort in her being reunited with our Heavenly Father and those loved ones she had been separated from for most of her life. We will miss her terribly and await the day we will see her again. In addition to her parents, Lila is preceded in death by her sister, Nieves Gomez.

A graveside service will be held at Jonesboro Memorial Park on Thursday, October 15, 2020 at 10:30 a.m. with Don Blackmore officiating. The pallbearers will be Nick Williams, Dale Williams, Chad White, Nate Wilson, Aaron Parsley, Jake Henry Williams, and Briggs White. The honorary pallbearers will be the members of her Agape Sunday School Class at Central Baptist Church.