1927-2025
Bernice Gasaway Collins departed this life on Monday, March 3, 2025, to begin a new life. She was born on December 11, 1927, in Grady, Arkansas, the oldest child of 3 children born to Gerguis Gasaway and Neva Chambers Gasaway.
Bernice received her early education in the public schools of Dumas, Arkansas, graduating in the class of 1945. At the age of 17, she moved to Pine Bluff, where she continued to reside.
She worked for Merrill, Lynch, Pearce, Fenner, and Bean stockbrokers as a teletype operator and board member; Fox Brothers Wholesale Hardware in the bookkeeping department and a local CPA.
She married Walter Collins on September 2, 1950, and they were married over 70 years until his death July 9, 2021, at the age of 97.
Bernice was a long-time member of First Christian Church but had attended Central Presbyterian Church since 2002.
She enjoyed sewing, cross stitching, browsing antique shops, and genealogy research. She was able to compile over 13 generations of the Gasaway families back to the 1600’s in Old London Town, England. They migrated to the new world and settled in Maryland. Through these records, she was able to see “the nuts, bolts, and loose screws” of these Gasaways as she knew them. It is interesting to note that during this time period, a new translation of the Bible, The King James Version, came from the press in 1611.
She was preceded in death by her parents (her father in 1984 and her mother in 2002); her brother, Bobby Gasaway in 1991; and her husband. Bernice lived to the age of 97 and outlived most of her old-time friends, some from before they started to school, including Mary Ruth Morton Henley, Mildred Westall Want, Emogine Freeman Powell, Sara Holden, Eloise Mead Fox, and Lurline Elam.
Survivors include one son, Walter Len Collins (born July 24, 1959) and his wife, Jeanette; one granddaughter, Jennifer Collins Brown and her husband, Shane Brown; a precious great-granddaughter, Olivia Brown, all of Pine Bluff; a sister, Shirley Gasaway Smith and her husband, Morris Smith of Dermott, Arkansas.
A graveside service in the Cedar Grove section of Graceland Cemetery, Pine Bluff, will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Thursday, March 6, 2025, with the Reverend Jai Kwak officiating. Arrangements were entrusted to the care of Ralph Robinson and Son Funeral Directors.
