Jeannelle Bell

Eighty-seven-year-old Jeanelle Bell slipped peacefully from the bonds of the earth on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2015 at One Magnolia Place in Gulfport, Miss. No longer consumed with pain, she is free and has joined those family members who have gone before her.
To her family and friends she was known as Nell and she never met a stranger. Her smile and laughter were contagious. Her family was the most important thing in the world to her and she was always looking for ways to encourage them and show her love.
She entered the world shortly after Charles Lindbergh had made the first Transatlantic flight from New York to Paris, Calvin Coolidge was president, talking pictures were yet to be introduced to theater goers and the Great Depression was only a year and three-months away. During her lifetime, she would see 15 presidents serve in office; six of them would serve more than one term.
Her youth was spent during one of the most economically challenging eras in our country's history and the lessons learned during that time would serve her well in later life. She was reared in a family that included six siblings in rural North Mississippi.
Life forever changed at the end of World War II when she met and married Buren Bell in 1946. Together they raised four children and she worked alongside her husband in his accounting practice until his retirement.
The couple was among the charter members of Bayou View Baptist and over the years they attended Handsboro Baptist, Michael Memorial and Woolmarket Baptist.
Over the years Jeanelle and Buren would become avid square dancers as members of the Star Twirlers. Later they would take up ballroom dancing and could be seen at events all along the Coast or wherever a good orchestra was playing ballroom dance music, including the venues on the River Thames.
Jeanelle was a former member of the Homemakers Club, Gulfport Garden Club and Women's Club of Gulfport.
She was a loving, outgoing daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother during her time here on earth. Though she has left us bodily, her actions and the memories she created for us will long live after her passing.
She was preceded in death by mother and father, Dolphus and Alice Stewart; sisters, Allene McNeil, Faye Tatum, Evelyn Tatum, Joyce Allen and brother Charles Stewart; her husband, Buren Bell; son, Stephen Bell; and granddaughter, Rebecca Bell.
She is survived by her sister, Carolyn Vaughn of Memphis, Tenn.; son, Ronnie Bell of El Dorado, Ark.; son, Charles Bell of Hattiesburg, Miss.; daughter, Sharon Galloway of Gulfport; granddaughter, Allison Henderson of Fort Smith, Ark.; granddaughter, Bethany Venegas of Harrison, Ark.; great-grandson, Andrew Venegas; and great-granddaughter, Caroline Henderson. Her extended family includes three step-grandchildren; 17 step-great-grandchildren; and 13 step-great-great grandchildren.
Friends may join the Bell family for visitation on Wednesday, October 28th from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m., at RIEMANN FAMILY FUNERAL HOME, 274 Beauvoir Road, Biloxi, and again on Thursday, October 29th from 10:30 until 11:30 a.m.
The funeral service will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday in the funeral home chapel. Interment will follow at Biloxi National Cemetery at 12:30 p.m.
Tributes may be shared with the family at www.riemannfamily.com