Norma Gaye Lawrence Jaggers

On Christmas Day, Norma Gaye Lawrence Jaggers, loving wife to Jack, went home to be with her Lord. She was 80 years old.

Norma was born at home in Macon, Texas, on August 22, 1939. She was educated in a one-room schoolhouse in Macon Community and later at Mount Vernon Junior High, where she met the love of her life, Jack Jaggers, and Mount Vernon High School. Jack and Norma were married on November 14, 1956. After stops in Pennsylvania and San Antonio with the US Air Force, Jack and Norma settled in East Texas. Jack was a barber in Atlanta and Mount Pleasant, and after ten years as a homemaker, Norma enrolled in college and eventually earned her BA and Masters, enjoying a career as an English teacher at Corprew Middle School and PE Wallace Junior High. They raised two daughters, Donna and Lisa.

Norma was a well-beloved Bible study teacher and mentor to women. Because she loved Jesus, she loved His Word, and loved to help others come to know Him through the Scriptures. She taught a Bible study for women for nearly 35 years and taught Sunday School her entire adult life. She consistently poured herself into the lives of others through the speaking and teaching of God’s Word.

She loved plants and flowers, and was an avid gardener, to which her home in Winfield bears witness. She dearly loved her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, her daughters, and even her sons-in-law. She loved family gatherings, and she could hardly bear it when even one grandchild or cousin was missing from a holiday gathering. There was no such thing as “the kids’ table”—every family member had to squeeze around the dining room table at once, or it didn’t count. After the fifth or sixth table leaf, the family began to worry that an addition would have to be built onto the house so Grandmother could enjoy the whole family around one big table.

She is survived by her faithful husband of 63 years, Jack, her beloved sister Judy Brown, daughters and sons-in-law Donna and Ken Pilgrim, and Lisa and Mike Schutt; grandchildren David and Treanne Schutt, William and Greta (Pilgrim) Simpson, Derick and Emily (Schutt) Hopkins, Lonnie and Karah Pilgrim, and Jack Schutt; great-grandchildren Thomas and Jack Henry Simpson, Callie, Myles, and Reed Schutt, and Nora Hopkins; and eight nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Lloyd and Lucille Lawrence, two brothers, John L. and infant Thomas Edwin Lawrence, great-grandson Shiloh Michael Hopkins, and three nephews.

Norma Jaggers was always joyful and thankful in all things. She never complained, and she found the good in all things and people. On Christmas Eve, the day before she died, the family gathered for Christmas dinner at the hospital, and each of her children and grandchildren spent a few minutes alone with her at her bedside. At the end of the day, she declared that this was “the best Christmas ever,” and that she was “happy, happy, happy.” Now in the presence of her Savior, for her it really is the best Christmas ever, and her family rejoices that she is with Jesus.

Visitation was held from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM Saturday, December 28, 2019 at the Trinity Baptist Church with services following at 2:00 PM.

Online registry is available at batescoopersloanfuneralhome.com