Sarah Ann White Cromes entered Eternal Glory on July 31, 2026. Born December 16, 1940, in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, she was the cherished second child of Henry Otis and Bennie Franklin Covington Jenkins. She fostered a deep, abiding faith in Jesus that translated into a selfless life. All of her days, she lived close to the Earth, particularly on the water. She loved nature, especially the waterfowl of the rivers of the Ozarks and the lakes near Terry and Utica, Mississippi.

She married Thomas Warner White, and together they raised a loving family. Beginning in the 1960s, she reimagined her role of homemaking for her three daughters ignoring conventional expectations for women of her generation. Her passion was building and all things mechanical, and she labored endlessly making goldfish ponds, tilling vegetable gardens, planting fruit trees, laying extensive stone walls and stairs, and terracing the land toward the water’s edge. She worked with her hands in the dirt, trenching, moving boulders, and shaping the land around her. Having traveled extensively with her family, she sought to bring the visions of the ancient world to her own backyard.

Although small in stature, she was blessed with uncanny physical strength, utter determination, and the ingenuity to accomplish nearly any task. With tools of every sort, she could put almost any broken machine back in working order. With rolling pipes, she worked alone, moving railroad ties for her rose gardens. She could be spotted high in the pine tops with a chainsaw, swinging on elaborate ropes and pulleys she devised to hoist herself forty feet up. Over the years, she redesigned, built, and rebuilt many houses, greenhouses, and workshops, elevating them to her standard of beauty and function. From her immense garden in the 1970s, she distributed free organic vegetables to neighbors from her roadside stand. She was blessed with the joy of work, and hers was the giving of talent and labor.

Alta Woods Methodist Church was the family’s anchor to an extensive community of friends, particularly the J. B. Thompson Discussion Class. At church suppers, she opted out of cooking but was delighted to fix the stove or the church’s cooling towers. She enjoyed mission trips to Jamaica constructing shelters and mending roofs.

She was self-taught in the trades, but she graduated from cosmetology school. For decades, people rotated through her little beauty shop while she gave free coiffures, haircuts, and eyelash dyes.

Widowed in 1994, she later fell in love again and married Tom O. Cromes of Piqua, Ohio. They were married for 25 years living part of that time in Norfork, Arkansas. In those years, she continued her life of projects on the White River.

She instilled in each of her daughters a creative spirit. Her disposition in life was lighthearted; she was always smiling and never complaining. Her humor was sharp, and her generosity abundant. Even with the onset of Alzheimer’s, she remained joyful and full of life. Her family wishes to thank every caregiver at The Rose Garden, The Orchard’s memory care center, for loving her so well and helping her thrive.

She is survived by her husband, Tom Cromes. She was preceded in death by her sister, Shirley Sessions of Raymond, and is survived by her brother, Hugh Jenkins (Sherron) of Hazlehurst, and her sister, Penny Buckley of Clinton.

She leaves three daughters: Monica Renee Fountain (Brad) of Utica; Melanie Dawn Holmes (Charles) of Wayne, Pennsylvania; and Michelle Lea Greenlee of Terry. She was preceded in death by William Greenlee, Jr.

She was blessed with seven grandchildren: Jamie Fountain (Sarah), Samuel Fountain (Heather), Jesse Fountain, Eli Holmes (Skylar), Lila Holmes, Christopher Greenlee (Catarina), and Nicholas Greenlee (Mallory). She is also survived by nine great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

In her last season, she worshiped at Grace City Church in Jackson with four generations of her beloved family. She forged a legacy of faith and a life of service, but today, she is free.

“For the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

II Corinthians 3:17

In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to Southern Christian Services for Children and Youth, Inc. in Jackson, Mississippi. www.scscy.org