Bertha Sipes Vaughan

Funeral services for Bertha Sipes Vaughan, age 81, of Bolivar, will be 1:00 pm, Saturday, January 11, 2020 at Bolivar First Baptist Church. Burial will follow in Walnut Grove Cemetery. Visitation for Mrs. Vaughan will be Thursday, January 9, 2020 at Shackelford Funeral Directors in Bolivar from 5:00 – 9:00 pm and again on Friday from 5:00 – 9:00 pm. “Miss Bertha”, as she was known to many, passed away Saturday morning, January 4, 2020 at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis.

The service will be officiated by Bro. Mike Delisle and Bro. Matt Emerson. Active pallbearers will be Jake, Josh and Tanner Vaughan, George Morin, Trey Parker and Ryan Hoskinson. Honorary pallbearers are Jimmy, Bobby and Jackie Sain, Mike Smalley, Kenny, Todd, Josh and Anthony Pulse, Jason Lindsey and Kenny Monteith.

She was a native and life-long resident of Bolivar, born on Saturday, February 25, 1938. She was the daughter of the late Clint Hammons Sipes and Ruth Elizabeth Baker Sipes and a 1956 graduate of Bolivar Central High School. A gifted singer, she had her own band, “Bertha Sipes & The Rhythm Ranch Boys”, during her high school years. She also sang on WBBJ-TV in Jackson and had her own radio show in Bolivar. Subsequently, she moved to Memphis in the late 1950’s to sing with The Slim Rhodes Show featuring Slim, Dusty and Speck Rhodes. The group appeared regularly on WMC-TV in Memphis and toured extensively in the Mid-South area.

In the early 1960’s, Bertha returned to Bolivar where she married the love of her life, Joseph Vaughan, on Friday, August 2, 1963. Mr. Vaughan passed from this life on Sunday, June 23, 2013 following 49 years of marriage. She worked alongside her husband as secretary for Bolivar Lumber Company, retiring in 2005, and was a lifetime member of the Walnut Grove Baptist Church. She taught Sunday School there for many years, sang in the church choir and traveled with the Walnut Grove Gospel Quartet.

Bertha loved the community in which she lived. She was active in the Hardeman County Arts Council and past chairwoman of the American Cancer Society. In 1995, she received the Pride of Tennessee Award and, in 1979, was one of the founders of Hardeman County’s “Hee-Haw” show. She continued to lend her talents to the production for 40 years. The show has helped raise over $400,000 for cancer research.

She leaves two sons, Gregory R. Vaughan and wife, Janna, and Jason Vaughan and wife, Lisa, both of Bolivar; three sisters, Nancy Dillard and husband, Burton, Margaret Howell and Susan Sipes Webster, all of Bolivar; her brother, David Sipes and wife, Rhonda, of Bolivar; eight grandchildren, Shannon Morin and husband, George, Jake, Josh, Taylor, Haley and Tanner Vaughan, Hayley and Ryan Hoskinson; two great-grandchildren, Arielle and Aubrey Williams; special daughter, Beth Vaughan of Niceville, FL; two step-sisters, Betty Jordan and Nancy Gray; two step-brothers, Tommy and Terry Wharton; and her many “adopted” children of which there are simply too many to name.

In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by her step mother, Jean Wharton Sipes, a sister, Annie Marie Crawford, and a step-brother, Wade Wharton.

Charitable contributions in memory of Mrs. Vaughan may be sent to the American Cancer Society [http://www.cancer.org] or the Wounded Warrior Project [http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org].