Mattie Lois Campbell Binns was born Feb 4, 1932 in the woods near the Flint River in Faceville, GA to Mattie Julia Howell Campbell and William Maxwell Campbell. She had five brothers and two sisters. Her older sister, Lennie Louise, died at 12 of a likely ruptured appendix at a time when doctors making house calls could take a week to arrive. Maybe that's why Lois chose to be a nurse.

Lois graduated from Moultrie High School at 17 in the class of 1949. She spent the next three years at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, partly to learn to be a nurse and partly to look for handsome doctors. Her mother, it must be said, thought nurses were wild women and did not approve.

Lois later moved to Albany, GA and worked at Phoebe Putney Hospital, where she was celebrated as an efficient and empathetic leader of the nursing community until she retired in 1995. Her career spanned from 1952-1995, and she held many supervisory coordinator roles, was even head of the closed psychiatric ward, but like any good fishing tale, the length got longer with each telling. In the end, she might say she was nursing for 90 years, and who were you to argue? Thinking back to Lennie Louise, maybe she was.

After retiring, she spent time with her kids and grandkids and travelled the world with her friends to places like France, Denmark (where she met the Queen), New England, and Washington DC. While she loved traveling, her favorite place was where she raised her family and tended a tight knit community: Albany, GA.

In Albany, she was a devoted, faithful, and active member of Porterfield Methodist Church. She tenaciously encouraged her family to love and serve God. In addition to her spiritual life, she also led an active social life. She was a member of bridge clubs, held many fabled dinner parties, and won gardening ribbons for her roses at the Thomasville flower festival.

When her health began to falter, she had to leave her beloved Albany. She moved in with her daughter, Donna, in Richmond Hill, GA. Donna devoted the last 10 years to caring for her mother. Later in life, Lois made the friend of a lifetime when her granddaughter gave her a sassy tabby cat named Belle. Belle lived nearly 20 years, and they will be buried together, so Belle can forever rest on Lois' lap.

She is survived by her 3 children, Wally Binns (Mary) of Leesburg GA, Donna Jones of Richmond Hill GA, and William Binns (Liz) of Frisco TX, her 9 grandchildren, 9 great grandchildren, and her only remaining sibling, Maxine Hadden. She will be dearly missed.

Memorial Services will be held at 11am, Saturday, March 8, 2025 at Porterfield Methodist Church in Albany, Georgia.