Verna Howard Howell (Dunn) March 8- 1927-March 8, 2015 A woman with as much name as personality and friends. Verna lived life to the fullest even to the end. Verna passed away March 8, 2015 on her 88th birthday after less than a two-week stay at Bermuda Commons in Advance. Verna was Davie County through and through. She was born and raised on a farm on Rainbow Rd., daughter of the late Hettie May Sofley Howard and Albert Stevenson Howard. As an adult she moved just down the road from her parents, where she lived and managed to take care of herself until four weeks ago. During her very brief stay at Bermuda Commons a nurse commented, 'It was like a revolving door in and out of her room with the outpouring of friends and family visiting.' Verna loved to be around people and loved to tell stories. A few weeks before her death while riding in car traveling Highway158 and Highway 801, she named every single person that lived in each house and named their parents also. She never met a stranger and never was without conversation. As a result, people near and far always had a 'Verna' story. Verna was employed with RJR Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem for twenty years, thirteen years at Ramada Inn in Clemmons and thirty years as a CNA at the Blumenthal Jewish Home in Clemmons. She also did private duty nursing at Bermuda Village in Advance. She retired but never slowed. She was an active member of the Good Times Square Dance Club, the Home Demonstration, Cub Scout Leader, Methodist Women, and an active participant at the Farmington Senior Center events and monthly birthday parties. Verna always had the annual chicken stew for her friends every fall and so many looked forward to the fire, good stew and of course good stories. She was a faithful member of Bethlehem United Methodist Church, where she was the oldest female member living until her death. She loved to travel with friends, family and her brother, Thomas Howard. Verna enjoyed her morning out at Bo Jangles and catching up on the latest gossip. She was an avid Nascar Fan who rooted for Jeff Gordon. Perhaps he is retiring since he has lost his biggest fan (Verna). Any afternoon you might find her at home in her later years watching Judge Judy, The Waltons or the local news. If you even mentioned being sick or if someone within a fifty mile radius passed away she would start cooking; making chicken pies, green beans, sweet potato casserole and some type of pie or cake. She was a fabulous cook and before her decline in health she would always fix Monday night supper so the family could all congregate and discuss all the happenings with the families. It got to be a joke because you never knew who would stop by. She loved canning and freezing corn. The family will miss her cutting off corn this year. When her favorite son-in-law got a new Harley, she decided she had to ride. At age seventy-eight, she got on the back and down the road they went. When she returned, she told us if she could put training wheels on it she would get her one to ride, it was so much fun. Verna could not always wait until Thursday for the Davie County Enterprise to come and she would sometimes slip out and go get the paper on Wednesday just so she could be the first to know the news. She would read every word of the paper and then start calling to see if we had heard about so and so. We knew she was sick Wednesday when she did not ask for the beloved Davie County Enterprise. She will be missed at the Howard Reunion, which she was a fixture every year. Verna loved her grandkids but the great-grand kids in her older years always brought her so much joy. Verna was definitely one of a kind. She could put you in your place or be in the place where you needed her to be minutes later. You could always depend on her to be at family gatherings and be early and stay late so she would not miss anything. Her wit and sense of humor remained alert and observant to the end. She was proceeded in death by her husband, Loyd Dunn; one sister, Julia Geraldine Howard Pilcher, and two brothers, Glenn Stevenson Howard and Hugh Thomas Howard. She is survived by her two devoted children, Kathy Howell Miller (Patrick), Ronald Gene Howell (friend Jody Kirby); three grandchildren, Suzanne Miller Lakey (Bryan), Matthew Holt Miller (Laura), and Stephanie Howell Mathis (Shannon); six great-grandchildren, Annabelle, Brooklyn, Calleigh and Stella Lakey, Caleb and Conner Mathis; five nieces and nephews, Julia Ann Pilcher Myers, Loretta Pilcher Boger (Jeff), Tommy Howard (Robin), Anthony Stevenson Howard, and Beverly Howard Tripp. If there was ever a good Christian woman it was Verna. 'I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I show to any fellow person, let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. With love, your family To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Verna Howard Howell please visit our Sympathy Store. Cemetery Details Bethlehem United Methodist Church 321 Redland Road Advance, NC, Service MAR 11. 5:00 PM (EDT) Bethlehem United Methodist Church 321 Redland RoadAdvance, NC