Rachel Ross Sanford

Funeral services will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, June 22, 2026, at the Willow Grove Baptist Church for Rachel Ross Sanford, 93 of Seminary, who passed away on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at the South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel.

Reverend Hal Hatten and Reverend Lee Faler will officiate at the services with interment to follow in the Willow Grove Baptist Church Cemetery in Collins. Special music will be provided by Mrs. Julia Rae Graham and Mrs. Cathy Clark. Billy M. King-Colonial Chapel Funeral Home in Collins will be in charge of the arrangements.

The family will receive friends from 5:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 21, 2026, at Billy M. King-Colonial Chapel Funeral Home, 3202 Highway 49, Collins, Mississippi, 39428, and from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. on Monday, June 22, 2026, at Willow Grove Baptist Church, 979 Willow Grove Church Road, Collins, Mississippi, 39428.

Her active pallbearers will be Ken Ross, Todd Ross, Carroll Dickerson, Mike Faler, Randy Daniel, and Chris Brister. Honorary pallbearers will be Dan Pickering, Danny Wade, Ralph Sims, Reed Abercombie, and the members of the Naomi Sunday School Class of Willow Grove Baptist Church.

Mrs. Sanford was born on May 18, 1933, in Covington County, Mississippi, to Claude and Minnie Rawls Ross. She was a graduate of Seminary High School Class of 1950. Mrs. Sanford retired from Priority One Bank after twenty-eight years of service as a bank teller. She was a member of the Willow Grove Baptist Church in Collins where she served as the church clerk for over fifty years. Mrs. Sanford was very active in the Naomi Sunday School Class. She was a loving wife, mother, sister, and friend, and will be dearly missed by her family and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Claude and Minnie Rawls Ross; her husband, J.V. Sanford; and one brother, Doyle Ross.

Survivors include one son, Danny Sanford of Hattiesburg; one daughter, Brenda Dickerson, and her husband, Carroll of Lucedale; three brothers, Lloyd Ross of Seminary, Wilford “Jim” Ross of Aiken, South Carolina, and John Allen Ross of Collins; and a host of nieces, nephews, and other family members.

Family members and friends may sign an online guestbook at www.billymkingcolonialchapel.com