By Staff
Mrs. Shirleen Jones Coward Mitchell Gurkin, 58, of 437 Long Ridge Road, Pinetown, and a former resident of Craven County, died Thursday May 24, 2007 at her home.
A funeral will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday May 27, 2007 at Shiloh Free Will Baptist Church officiated by Rev. Bill Mobley. Burial will follow in the Boyd Family Cemetery in Pinetown. Jack Kilpatrick, John Kilpatrick, Slade Heath, Sim Jones, Jeremy Mills, Kenneth Poorman and Ricky Poorman will serve as pallbearers.
Mrs. Gurkin was born in Craven County on July 7, 1948 daughter of the late Sim Jones and the late Josephine Elizabeth Lancaster Jones. She graduated from Farmlife High School and continued her education at Craven Community College. She was a homemaker and had worked as a school bus driver and lunchroom worker at Fort Barnwell Elementary School. She later operated the Burger Barn in Fort Barnwell, the Road Side Caf/ in Vanceboro, Haddocks Grocery &Grill in Clayroot and the Carolina Country Kitchen in Washington. She married Hilton Gurkin on May 5, 2001 who survives. Mrs. Gurkin was a member of Fort Barnwell Church of God and attended Shiloh Free Will Baptist Church.
Survivors include her husband, Hilton, of the home; two daughters, Evelyn Marie Durham of Trenton and Brenda Faye Willis of Washington; a son Russell Edward Coward of Pinetown; a stepson, Jeff Mills of Williamston; four sisters, Addie Powell of New Bern, Catherine Heath of Jacksonville, Pat Carraway of Grifton and Beatrice Riggs of New Bern; two brothers, Melvin “Mutten” Jones of Fort Barnwell and Ervin H. Jones of Hunting, W. Va.; a stepmother, Marie L. Gurkin of Pinetown; six grandchildren and three stepgrandchildren. Mrs. Gurkin was preceded in death by two brothers, James Vernon Jones and Thomas Slade Jones and a sister, Mary Anne Gurkin.
The family will receive friends from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Saturday, May 26, 2007 at Paul Funeral Home of Washington and at other times at the home.
Flowers are welcome and appreciated or memorial contributions may be made to Shiloh Free Will Baptist Church C/O Brent White, 1509 Biggs Road, Pinetown, NC 27865.
Condolences may be directed to the Gurkin family by visiting www.paulfuneralhome.com.
Paul Funeral Home of Washington is serving the Gurkin family.