June 10, 97, 
Born at home, Mary Louise Stallings Sparks was a native of Franklin County. She was the oldest of ten siblings and preceded in death by her parents; John Ernest and Mamie Champion Stallings, four sisters; Elsie Oddo, Sallie Brown, Inez Owens and Marie Sullivan, and four brothers; Harold “Cap” Stallings, John “Doc” Stallings, Billy Stallings and Bob Stallings. She is survived by her youngest sister, Lola Pearl Stallings Lee of Monroe, NC and a multitude of nieces and nephews affectionately known and proudly claimed as “Aunt Louise’s children.” Louise was the oldest living member of the First Baptist Church of Goldsboro and her faith was the epicenter of her life. She lived a simple, quiet, life that revolved around serving God, working, and caring for her entire family.
The first in her family’s history, Louise graduated from Louisburg College in 1940 and in 1941, along with her sister Elsie, was one of the first employees that broke ground for Camp Lejeune Marine Base. She received the highest civilian medal for selling defense-war bonds from President Roosevelt during World War II. In 1943 she married USMC Sergeant Roy Sparks and during the war, as he served, she came home to care for her parents. Louise moved to Goldsboro in 1958. For nearly forty years she lovingly cared for her mother, Mamie, while working full time and enjoyed a 30 year career with The Stackhouse Corporation, where she is still considered extended family as they are to her.
To know Aunt Louise was to adore her. She was a living testament of the Fruit of the Spirit as described in Holy Scripture; loving, peaceful, long-suffering and gentle, filled with meekness and humility. For close to twenty years, homebound with near blindness, she rarely missed a radio broadcast of Sunday’s service and was faithfully ministered to by pastors-friends Dr. Glenn Phillips and Reverend Scott Thrailkill, along with numerous devoted deacons and the Virginia Henderson-Fidelis Docas Sunday School class. She was cared for in later years and her final days by an amazing collection of devoted family and friends, and special friend Vickye Johnson, a direct reflection of the unending love and principles Louise selflessly shared throughout her journey. A daughter, sister, aunt, mother. A Godmother, namesake, best friend, counselor and confidant, Aunt Louise was blessed with an amazing long healthy life that defines the life of faith and hope in Jesus Christ and is a living testament to the power of unconditional love. She was a cherished matriarch and the heart of a family.
The family will have visitation at 1pm followed by a celebration at 2pm, Wednesday, June 13, at the First Baptist Church of Goldsboro. Interment will follow in Evergreen cemetery. Aunt Louise’s family expresses their deepest gratitude to our community, the church, Doctors Dugom, Kemp and Adkins, along with Wayne-UNC Hospital and the compassionate staff of Kitty Askins Hospice Center. In lieu of flowers it is the family’s wish donations be made to the First Baptist Church or Kitty Askins Hospice in Goldsboro, NC. The family will receive friends at other times at the home of her niece and family, Andy and Lisa Musselman.