Ethelene Skelton

Ethelene Lyon Skelton went to be with her Lord & Savior Jesus Christ on May 9, 2025. She departed from this earth to her heavenly home just short of her 97th birthday. Ethelene was born near Magee, Mississippi, on May 31, 1928, to Ethel Roy Lyon and Novella Johnson Lyon. The family moved to the community of Hale outside of Shaw, Mississippi, when Ethelene was a young child. She enjoyed playing tennis at school but ended her formal education during elementary school to help with the family farm and care for her sister Jean and brother Carlis.

Ethelene married Jimmie Paul Skelton August 9, 1946, and they had two sons, Jimmie Gordon Skelton and Steve Paul Skelton. She was very involved on the farm, doing everything from chopping cotton and pulling cotton trailers to and from the gin (she liked to remind Jimmie that she had never tipped over a trailer like he had) to filling coolers and delivering suppers to the field. In her later years, she did her part by making a huge "dinner" (lunch) every day and never missed a thing that was said on the farm radio. She loved to work in the yard and did so every day until her early 90s.

Ethelene was a doting "Granny" to Erica Skelton Stutzman, Emily Skelton Roberts and Elizabeth Claire Skelton. She picked out the marshmallows from the Lucky Charms for us (she made Grandaddy eat the brown ones), let us make "potions" with her nice Estee Lauder makeup and mud pies with real flour and sugar, allowed endless pillow forts and always made sure we had extra "Coca-Cola money." She and Grandaddy were at every sporting event and activities the grandchildren were involved in. Whenever she would pick up the girls from school or practice, she, without fail, would have an entire hot pizza and cold drinks wrapped in foil in the car. If there was ever an injury or bad feeling, Granny would have a cold rag to your head and neck immediately. She always had a yellow cake made and would save some of the raw batter for those of us that liked a little taste of that too. Granny also made the best boiled peanuts, fried chicken strips and "Granny balls" (a combination of Milky Ways, Frosted Flakes and pecans).

Granny adored her great-grandchildren: Gordon Evans Stutzman, Ellen Coghlan Stutzman, Phelps Reed Dickerson, Greer Gordon Dickerson and Hudson Charles Roberts. She always had ice cream ready (with chocolate sauce, caramel sauce and regular and vanilla Oreos) and would insist they have some even if it was before lunch ("a little bit's not gonna hurt you" she would say and then fix a heaping bowl). Granny had endless snacks and always sent a bag home with each great-grandchild. She loved to mark everyone's height on her wall. If you admired something in her house, she would say "take it!" The only time she ever got upset was if you tried to clean up a mess ("just leave it!") or tried to give her anything. We're not sure that she ever told her grandchildren 'no' but we can say with certainty that word was never said to her great-grandchildren.

Ethelene was a lifelong member of the Cleveland Church of God. She is preceded in death by her husband Jimmie, her son Gordon and her siblings Jean Lyon Sykes and Carlis Gordon Lyon. She is survived by her son Steve, three granddaughters Erica (Jacob), Emily (Drake) and Elizabeth (Micheal), and five great-grandchildren.

A private graveside service for the family will be held at a later date, followed by an ice cream party in her honor.

The family would like to thank her sitters, especially Deardra, Jeaniene, Mariela, Ruth and LaTanya.