Celebrating The Life Of Our Beloved Ms. Louise Dickens:

Louise Dickens was born to Ulysses Dickens and Lucille Coppage Dickens (both preceded her in death) on January 30, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. She was the only child from that union. Sadly, before the age of two, Louise's mother died; however, God blessed her with a very loving and wonderful father who raised her. Louise always told people that she had the best father. Louise was also blessed because her father's brother, Theodore Dickens and his wife, "Miss" Georgia, lived with them and also helped to raise her until they moved to Indiana. Louise had so many wonderful and funny stories about being raised by these three adults. She was also very close to another of her father's sisters, Adelaide Wilson, and often remarked that Aunt Adelaide was like a mother to her.

Louise attended the Detroit Public Schools and graduated from Northern High School in 1944. She often talked about the interesting experiences that she had because at that time Northern was not a highly integrated school. She also attended Wayne State University after retiring and received a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Louise had a love for children and two of her most significant jobs were with them. She worked at the D. J. Healy Home and later worked at the Wayne County Training Center as a child care worker. She retired from Wayne County in the early 1980's. After she received her bachelor's degree she worked for a while at a pre-school center in Detroit.

Louise accepted Christ into her life at an early age. She attended a few churches, but found her home with Scott Memorial United Methodist Church. Louise loved serving at Scott! She was a member for over 60 years. She was a faithful member serving in the capacities of Church Historian, Outreach Chairperson, Library Chairperson, Past President of Scott United Methodist Women, Secretary of Program Resources for the West District of the United Methodist Women, Sunday School teacher, member of Scott's Food Pantry, and member of the 3C's Senior Group. She loved worshipping the Lord and rarely missed a Sunday service. She also had a special love in her heart for the children and youth at Scott. She loved talking to them and staying connected to some of the wonderful things that they were doing.

Like her involvement with her church, Louise was also involved with her community. Louise served on the Blackstone Cooperative Inc., Board of Directors for 11 years where she lived for 42 years. In addition to her board work, she also served on the Blackstone Action and the Election Committees. She was highly respected, well liked, and helped to make Blackstone a great place for people to live.

She was also active in other ways: she was a member of an Investment Club for nearly 20 years that included several of her friends from Scott (Sarah Moore and Julia Pye), she was on a bowling league, she even learned square dancing at the Tindale Recreation Center. She was an avid book reader, particularly books related to history or non-fiction. One of her favorite books was on the quotes of the late Detroit Mayor Coleman Young; she would laugh so hard while reading it. She enjoyed listening to music, especially jazz and R&B and had an extensive collection of cds and records. She also loved to dance, and told people that when she was young Miss Georgia called her "snake hips."

Louise loved being with her paternal family. There were many fun times with her cousins, aunts, and uncles. Annual family picnics and holiday gatherings were a huge event for the Dickens clan back in the day and you would always find her talking, laughing and eating. Like a mother she always took an interest in what her younger cousins were doing and providing encouragement. Over the years she has had a special relationship with the four daughters of her second cousin Cornell Barnes (as she did with him when he was growing up). She enjoyed attending recitals, going to school events, transporting them to and from school, on occasion baby-sitting, bringing them to Scott for special events, and just bragging about all of their accomplishments.

In the past two years, Louise resided at the Four Chaplains Nursing Home and in that short time, she brought a lot of joy (and sometimes a little pain) to the staff. She was the dancing, hip shaking lady in the wheelchair. Anytime there was a party with music or music in the dining room she would start dancing in her chair, shaking her head and hands, and singing if she knew the words. The staff would also start dancing with her. One staff even got her a radio/cd player so that she could listen to music in her room and another brought her some R&B cds.

Louise went to her eternal home on Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 9:45 p.m.