Mrs. Elizabeth Cain Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Valeria Elizabeth Cain, 90, of Starkville, passed away April 13, 2013, at Noxubee General Hospital in Macon, Mississippi . Mrs. Cain was a homemaker, poet, songwriter, painter, and long-time community volunteer. She was known as "the Story Lady" at Starkville Public Library where she appeared, in costume, as Mistress Merry Perriwinkle to read to younger children on a regular basis. Mistress Merry Perriwinkle was a character she first developed in the 1980s when she lived in Vinemont, AL, where she helped begin a children’s reading program at the pubic library in nearby Cullman. Mrs. Cain read several of her poems on the CD “Once Upon a Long Ago Night . . . ,” a collection of local stories and music, which was sold to benefit the children’s section of the Starkville Public Library. She was a member of and a volunteer with the Oktibbeha Council of Community Organizations (COCO) where she helped many children and adults with speech therapy exercises and lessons in diction and enunciation. She often shared her poetry and artwork with the children and taught wood art to some of them. Mrs. Cain is preceded in death by her husband, John E. Cain, and her son, Bruce L. Cain. Survivors include two daughters, Joyce Cain of Starkville and Vicki Reeves of Billings, MT, and two sons, Roger W. Cain of Somerville, AL, and Wayne L. Cain of Mason, OH; 11 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. Visitation will begin at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, April 21, 2013 at Calvert Funeral Home Chapel in West Point and will be followed at 3:00 p.m. with a celebration of Mrs. Cain's life at which all who knew her are welcome to share remembrances of the ways in which she touched their lives. A family graveside observance will be held at 1:00 p.m. the next day, Monday, April 22, 2013 at the Corinth National Military Cemetery in Corinth, MS, where Mrs. Cain will be interred beside her husband of 50 years. Calvert Funeral Home of West Point is in charge of arrangements. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to COCO at P.O. Box 152, Starkville, MS 39760 or through PayPal at their website www.cococenter.org.