Vera Mae Koonce-Battiste

Vera Mae Koonce-Battiste was born on January 19, 1943, to Eva Lois & Paul Young of Birmingham, Alabama.

She attended Pearson Elementary School, Whetted Jr. High, and Hillside High School in Durham, North Carolina. Vera completed nursing school earning her degree. She worked as a CNA then continued her education becoming an LPN then a Registered Nurse. At an early age, Vera loved taking care of the elderly, she would say all of her wisdom came from the elderly. She learned a lot from being around them and she loved that. Before leaving for South Carolina to be with her grandchildren, she became the Director of Living Well Assisted Living.

Vera married her first husband Leslie Lewis, together they lived in Baltimore, Maryland and started a family. Vera loved eating crabs and frying fish on Friday. This was a tradition that did not change when she moved to South Carolina. Vera would send her children out to find her some crabs, blue crabs at that. She found a place to get them and would have seafood nights often.

Vera was baptized in Jesus’s name by the late Bishop William Lee Bonner at Refuge Temple of Columbia, South Carolina. She loved the Lord with all of her heart, soul, and mind.

So many have preceded her death including her second husband Adolph Battiste who passed in 2009, her sons, Gary Laymon,  Leslie Lewis, Jr.; daughter, Lafaithia Lewis; grandmother, Vera Hosea; mother Eva Lois, father, Paul Young, aunt, Virginia Hill, cousin, Virginia Dorsey, sister, Lorraine Wallace, brother, Harvey Beverly; grandparents, Charlotte and Jack Elliot; and uncles, Sammy and Tommy.

Vera Mae Koonce Battiste leaves to cherish her memories, her children, Roderick Byron (Sarah) Hall of Jarrettsville, MD, Robyn (Arnold) McCray, Angela (Myron) Burns, and Brent Osborne, Jr.; grandchildren, Myron Burns, Jr. Tyrec Burns, Burnetta LaShae` Burns, Nyaesha Burns, Bryan, and Scott; great-grandchildren, Serenity Jac’Kiyah Stephenson, and Cameron Logan Stephenson; cousins, Rhode Hill, Earl Dorsey, Sr., Earl Dorsey, Jr.; nieces and nephews, Ashley Beverly, David Wallace, Roland Wallace, Kevin Wallace, Rhonda Wallace; special friends, Pat Rabb, Ann Nowell; and a host of other friends and family who will deeply miss her.

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