Gladys Genelle Lucas Saunders

November 2, 1926 - February 28, 2019

PERRY, GA – Gladys Genelle Lucas Saunders, 92, passed away peacefully on Thursday, February 28, 2019. The family will visit with friends on Saturday, March 9, 2019, at 1:00 p.m. at Mt. Rowell Baptist Church in Union, SC. Funeral Services will begin at 2:00 p.m. following the visitation at the church. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Mrs. Saunders was born to the late Robin and Pearline Rutherford Lucas and grew up in Union, South Carolina. She was a lifetime member of Mt. Rowell Baptist Church in Union, having served in various positions through the years as Church Secretary, Church Historian, member of the Choir, an Usher, and member of a Missionary Circle. She was a Charter Member of Floyd Wilkes Chapter #208 of the OES, Eastern Stars, where she remained a member for over 70 years. Gladys moved to New Jersey where she met and married the love of her life, Robert O. Saunders. They had a long and wonderful life together there, raising their two daughters and welcoming grandchildren and great-grandchildren into the family. Always friendly, Gladys was a natural-born caregiver with a nurturing heart who loved people, especially her grandchildren and the neighborhood kids. When her grandchildren were young, she would always cook for them and their friends, often serving breakfast before they went to school, which she enjoyed immensely. Gladys had a “green thumb” and spent many hours in the beautiful outdoors nurturing her lovely flowers and vegetable gardens that her family, friends, and neighbors coveted. After her husband passed away in 2005, Mrs. Saunders felt the need to be closer to her daughters in Georgia, and she moved to Perry in 2007, where she remained until she took her last breath last Thursday. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 46 years, Robert O. Saunders; an infant sister, Dilsie Lucas; and her siblings, Europe “Tony” Lucas, Eunice Lucas Belcher, and Madeline Lucas Dina. Left to cherish the memories they made with “Grammy,” to which Gladys was lovingly referred, are her two daughters, Sara Lucas Williams (Marlyn) of Perry, GA, and Dilsa Saunders Bailey (James) of Tucker, GA; her three grandchildren, Calvin Robinson of Perth Amboy, NJ, and Kristina Bailey and Lisa Bailey, both of Tucker, GA; four bonus grandchildren; and fifteen great-grandchildren. Also surviving are her sister, Johnnie Foster of Union, SC, and many nieces and nephews. Condolences for the family may be left in the online guestbook at www.watsonhunt.com. Watson-Hunt Funeral Home in Perry, GA, and Community Mortuary in Spartanburg, SC, are entrusted with the arrangements.