Beatrice Elam

Beatrice Elam, 89, of Corinth, MS, passed away on Monday, February 8, 2021 at Cornerstone Rehab & Health Center. She was born in Alcorn County, MS on February 25, 1931 to the late Lee and Alice Lindsey Kellum, and was a homemaker and attended Lone Oak Baptist Church. Mrs. Beatrice Elam lived her life in devotion to her family and her God. When she was only twelve, she prepared meals for her family while they worked in the fields. Practice in the kitchen made perfect, and by adulthood, she made the best biscuits, cornbread, chocolate pie, chicken dumplings, and duck dressing her family had ever tasted. Not only was she a capable cook, she was a cunning one. Ms. Elam could go to the refrigerator and, with the odds and ends, she found inside, make a delicious soup. Bits and pieces others would have thrown away became something magnificent in her skilled hands. Her passion for keeping and using every possible scrap extended beyond cooking - Ms. Elam, of a generation that knew need, never threw anything away. After only thirty-two years of marriage, Beatrice’s husband L.V. passed away suddenly, leaving his beloved “Polly” alone. His death was a blow from which Ms. Elam never recovered, and as she found his love impossible to duplicate, she never remarried. Though his loss was the most trying sorrow of her life, Ms. Elam felt, in the words of her idol Marty Stuart, “sometimes the pleasure’s worth the pain” and she spoke of their marriage fondly for the rest of her life. When her mother suffered a debilitating stroke, Ms. Beatrice cared for her until she passed away; her love extended beyond life, her devotion was unparalleled, and her faithfulness knew no limits. A life of service, sacrifice, fortitude, and resourcefulness is Ms. Beatrice’s legacy. Due to the pandemic of Covid-19 visitation and services will be for family only on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at Magnolia Funeral Home – South Chapel officiated by Bro. Neil Davis. Interment will be in Brush Creek Cemetery. Magnolia Funeral Home - South is entrusted with the arrangements. Those left to honor Beatrice’s memory include her daughters, Hilda Floyd and husband Billy of Corinth and Tammy Mask and husband Tim of Rienzi; her grandchildren, Christy Floyd of Birmingham, AL, Lindsey Langley (Zach) of Laurel, MS, and Laken Wilbanks (Troy) of Corinth; her great-grandchildren, Abbey Langley, Nate Langley, and Olivia Langley; other relatives and a host of friends. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, L.V. Elam. Online condolences may be expressed at magnoliafuneralhome.net.