Deaconess Lois Sherwood

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 KJV Deaconess Lois Marie Sherwood was born September 26, 1931, in Velasco, Texas, the oldest child and only daughter of Andrew L. Bates, Sr. and Mary L. Bates. Her father retired from the City of Freeport; her mother kept their home. As a family, they were rarely seen apart. Whatever love they had, they gave away to everyone they met. It was the first thing Lois ever learned, and she spent the next ninety-four years passing it on. She was baptized at Bethel Baptist Church in Freeport in 1937, six years old, and never once looked back. When R. O’Hara Lanier High School graduated its first class in 1949, there were four young people in it. Lois was one of them. By the time she finished she had been a class officer, an athlete, a member of the school’s civic clubs, and Homecoming Queen. It was not because she collected titles, but because she was the kind of girl people kept turning to, and she never once said no. What she learned from her aunt who was the teacher, she carried the rest of her life. Being first is only worth something if you leave a door open behind you. She went on to Prairie View A&M College in 1950 and later attended the Texas School of Business. On July 19, 1952, she married Jimmie Sherwood. They made their home in Texas City that same year and never left it. She called him the love of her life, and she was not being sentimental, she was being accurate. The home they built together became a place of peace, love, and comfort, and the door stood open to anybody who needed to walk through it. Jimmie preceded her in death on March 12, 2018, after sixty-five years and seven months of marriage. On the afternoon of July 19, 2026, their wedding anniversary, Lois began her transition, and at 7:20 the following morning she went home to her Lord. Her family holds it as plainly as it happened: he came back to get his bride on their anniversary. LIFE OF SERVICE FAITH AND MINISTRY In 1956 she united with Greater Barbour’s Chapel Baptist Church under Pastor J. H. Scott, and when Pastor L. B. Brown ordained Jimmie a deacon on July 8, 1961, she was ordained a Deaconess and from that day forward they served in Ministry together. Lois’s death brings that era of Deaconess to an end. She loved her church and its membership near and dear to her heart. She served with gladness. She held the office of Deaconess President for nearly thirty-five years. She was First Vice President of General Mission, President of the Dorcas Circle, a Youth Sponsor, a voice in the choir, and a steady hand on the Building Fund Committee. She carried that work through five pastorates before health began to fail. There are members of Greater Barbour’s Chapel who cannot remember a time when she was not serving in her church. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 KJV Lois Marie sherwood was a trailblazer for African americans and Women. Career & Public Service In August of 1960 she joined the staff of the Texas City Housing Authority, where she would spend thirty-three years making certain that families in her city had a roof, an address, and someone in the office who knew their names. The Texas City Housing Authority hired her on August 6, 1960, and for thirty-three years the families who came through its doors were a congregation of another kind to her. She was named Executive Director in 1980 (Executive Directress, as her letterhead read) and she remains the first and only African American to hold that office in the history of the Authority. She understood her purpose and she fought for the people of Texas City from the City Hall to the Texas State Capitol to the US Congress. Many fought against her efforts and some doubted her ability but by 1991 she was seeing to it that three hundred and fifteen households — one hundred thirty in public housing, one hundred eighty-five through Section 8 — had a roof, an address they could say out loud, and someone in the office who knew their name. That year she secured a $987,000 modernization grant and a $100,000 drug elimination grant, and opened two drug education and prevention centers within a single summer. In 1993 she led the Authority’s HOPE 1 proposal to rehabilitate scattered-site homes and sell them outright to the families living in them — because a rent receipt was never what she wanted for anybody. Mayor Emmett Lowry honored her with a service plaque in 1985. Congressman Jack Brooks applauded her program in 1992. She worked closely with Governor Ann Richards and carried her city’s case to the state. She held a Texas social work certification and served as Secretary to the Board. She retired on January 28, 1994, after thirty-three years. She set the Authority’s theme herself in 1991: “Learn to do more — with Less!” And she kept another line on her papers, one her family knew by heart: Desire + Decision + Determination = Success. She believed it for herself. She believed it harder for everyone who sat down across from her desk. There are people in Texas City today who know what she did for them. She went to her rest without telling anyone else. That was not modesty. That was obedience. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35 KJV Civic Life She believed a town was only as good as the people willing to sit in its meetings. She was a charter member of the American Business Women’s Chapter of Texas City — there at the founding, as she so often was — and gave her time to the Social Directors of Galveston County, the Concerned Citizens of the Mainland, and the Texas City / La Marque Chamber of Commerce. She did not join things to be seen at them. She joined because somebody had to do the work, and she had long since stopped waiting for somebody else. “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8 KJV Philanthropy For more than thirty years she gave to Texas Children’s Hospital, St. Jude, to The Daily Word Ministries, and to people whose names she never spoke aloud, not once, not even to her own family. She had settled that question early: “When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.” Matthew 6:3–4 KJV She was preceded in death by the love of her life, her husband of sixty-five years and seven months, Deacon Jimmie Sherwood; by her parents, Andrew L. Bates, Sr. and Mary L. Bates, who taught her before she could read what it looks like to give love away to everyone you meet; and by her brothers, Andrew L. Bates, Jr. and Timothy L. Bates. She leaves to cherish her memory her two daughters, Vanessa G. Riles and Yolanda K. Davis, and the son-in-love she claimed as her own, Marcus K. Davis, Sr. She leaves her granddaughters, Kaeona Riles, Candice Davis-Ward, and Morgan V. Artiste and her husband, Chancelor, and her grandson, Marcus K. Davis, Jr. She leaves her beloved great-grandchildren, Klemille Westbrook, LaWren, Zoriah, Kaydince, and Kynnedi, all who affectionately called her MeMe. She leaves brother Clarence T. Bates, Sr. and his wife, Virginia, and a younger brother whom she loved and cared for as son Pastor Alvin Don Bates, Sr. and his wife, Elizabeth who loved and cherished her as Sister Mom. She leaves her special brother-in-love, Osbe Sherwood and his wife, Bessie, and her sister-in-law, Ruby Sherwood. She leaves two nephews who were as dear to her as sons, Ronald Bates and his wife, Tina, and Jerry Nealy and his wife, Vernell. She leaves her godchildren and their families that she loved as her own, Roy James and his wife, Barbara; Jessie James and his wife, Geraldine; Edith Pope Banks; John Humphrey. She leaves special friends who stood closest to her, Sis. Mattie Orman, Deaconess Viola Smith, Deaconess Juanita Jackson and Deaconess Sharon Johnson. And she leaves the Deacons and Deaconesses of Greater Barbour’s Chapel Baptist Church, who she loves as her own family. She also leaves a host of loving nieces, nephews, cousins, relatives, extended family, friends, and church family — and a city full of people whose names she knew. “Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.” Proverbs 31:25 KJV

Deaconess Lois Sherwood

September 26, 1931 - July 20, 2026