Bobbie V. Berrong's Obituary
Bobbie Virginia Berrong was born on April 5, 1924, and died on March 29, 2020, at the age of 95 only a week before her 96th birthday at the Manor in Kirby Pines Retirement Center in Memphis, Tennessee.
She was born in Corinth, Mississippi, to Robert Harney Yoakum and Hattie Mae Gray Yoakum.
She grew up in Memphis, Tennessee where she attended schools at Bruce, Rozell, Peabody and graduated from Memphis Tech High School. Due to the Depression, college was not an option for her. Her father was a carpenter who worked very hard to keep his family fed. Her mother worked hard to make every penny stretch. There was plenty of love in the home, despite other scarcities.
After high school, she started work at Chicago Airlines in the parts ordering department where she met the love of her life, Fred C. Berrong who was an aircraft engineer for Chicago Southern Airlines. They were married on Sept. 19, 1958. When Chicago Airlines consolidated with Delta Airlines, they moved to Tujunga in southern California where Fred went to work for Lockheed Aircraft as an Engineer. Lockheed sent them to Munich, Germany for five years where Fred was a project engineer to facilitate Germany’s purchase of F104 Fighter planes. This was a very special time for them because they traveled to thirty-five countries and two principalities and shared many wonderful lifetime memories.
After moving back to the Los Angeles/Tujunga area, she and Fred were involved in the Masonic organization. Bobbie joined the Order of Eastern Star and became Worthy Matron in 1975, Deputy Grand Matron in 1980, Grand Representative to Georgia representing California, 1988 Worthy Matron, Daughter of the Nile in California, and first joined P.E.O. in 1989 as a member of Chapter HK in California and later transferred to Chapter O in Memphis, Tennessee.
After 41 years of marriage her beloved Fred died on Nov. 10, 1999. After many years in California, she chose to return to her Memphis roots and make her home at Kirby Pines Retirement Center where she had a new life filled with many wonderful friends. She joined Colonial Park United Methodist Church, Shelby County Republican Club, Greenlawn Garden Club, Beta Sigma Phi, and Grand Presidential Order of Golden Slipper (wives and widows of Master Masons), as well as her involvement in every type of arts and crafts project she could imagine at Kirby Pines to keep her busy. She loved helping decorate all the different events and seasons of the year to spread joy to her fellow residents at Kirby Pines.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Fred C. Berrong and sisters Margaret Celestine Yoakum Jones and Helen Clara Yoakum Ingram. She is survived by her nephew Brad Berrong and wife Jeanine of Weatherford, Oklahoma.
Given the current national conditions and the family's concern for the health and well-being of others, Mrs. Berrong will be interred privately at Memorial Park Cemetery.
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