Ernestine Taylor Whitehead, 88, died Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Providence House in Batesville. The funeral service will be held Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017, at 11 a.m. in the Chapel of Waller Funeral Home with the Rev. Robert Allen officiating. Burial will follow in Oxford Memorial Cemetery. Visitation will be held prior to the service from 10 a.m. until service time.

Born in Starkville, to the late Ernest and Daisy Wilson Taylor, Mrs. Whitehead was raised by her aunt and uncle, Dell and Bessie Makamson of Sturgis, MS, because her mother died when she was only 6 months old. She was a former resident of Kosciusko, and she was a member of the Friendship Sunday Class at First Baptist Church in Oxford. She was co-owner of B & W Memorial Company. She was also formerly a member of Clear Creek Baptist Church. Mrs. Whitehead enjoyed playing cards, especially Bridge, with a group of her friends. She also found great pleasure in painting. She was a member of the Eastern Star and volunteered as a Pink Lady at Baptist Memorial Hospital.

Along with her parents she was preceded in death by her half-brother, Robert Taylor and her granddaughter, Jennifer Anne Thompson.

She is survived by daughter, Anne Whitehead Thompson of Oxford; son, Robert E. Whitehead, Jr. and his wife, Debbie of Walls; sister, Minnie Lee Ervin of Sturgis; brothers, Morris Taylor of Springfield, Alabama, Bill Taylor Gardner of Ethel, Louisiana, and Horace Taylor of Birmingham, Alabama; five grandchildren, Chris Whitehead, Heather Whitehead Blair and her husband, Jason, Dustin Whitehead, Park Thompson, and Jacob Thompson and his wife, Rachel and great grandchildren, Carter Blair, Harper Kate Blair and Chloe Whitehead.

Memorial contributions in Mrs. Whitehead’s memory may be made to First Baptist Church, 800 Van Buren, Oxford, MS 38655.

For additional information or to sign an online guestbook, visit www.wallerfuneralhome.com or call 662-234-7971.