Willis E Page

The Celebration of Life Service for Mrs. Page will be live streamed on the Facebook Page of Fisher Memorial Funeral Parlor.

Mrs. Willis E. Page was born on October 08, 1966, in Columbia, South Carolina. She was the youngest of the late James Edward and Mildred Perry Mack Page. She departed this life in the early morning on Saturday, August 31, 2024 in Durham, NC.

Willis Page was born and raised in Columbia, SC. Mrs. Page attended schools in Richland County School District One, graduating from W. J. Keenan High School, Class of 1984, where she was a member of the Women’s basketball team and band. She loved her Keenan Raiders and she just celebrated their 40th Reunion.  Following high school graduation, she attended Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Willis also continued to further her education by taking courses and becoming certified in manufacturing purchasing/buying.

Willis was very dedicated and passionate about her career. She held several accounting, purchasing, and planning positions throughout her life in the manufacturing industry. Willis started her career as a Buyer/Planner with Croscill Home in 1999. She continuously climbed the ladder in her career and was employed by Maysteel as a Production Planner. Her next achievement was working as a Parts Planner for GKN-Driveline and Hodge Company/John Deere. Her final career stop for the last 6 years, was Dill Air Controls employed as a Buyer/Planner. She was also the family’s resident tax expert and there was not a spreadsheet she could not conquer.

As an adult, Willis enjoyed spending time with family and friends, reading, traveling, cooking, gardening, and watching sports. She loved to dance and listen to music, with house, gospel, and Neo Soul music as her favorites. Many may not realize it, but Willis had a wonderful singing voice. She deeply cherished family and friends and shared her love of music with them. Some of our special memories were going to record stores in other countries, sampling different music, and dancing to house and neo soul. One of her favorite things was listening to gospel music at home doing chores or when she was cutting grass and gardening. She was so proud of the lawn and her container garden. She supplied many friends and neighbors with veggies from our garden over the years. She was a quiet listener, gave incredibly good advice always rooted in care and compassion to her friends and family. She was very kind-hearted and welcomed anyone she met. To know her is to love her. Willis always saw the good in any and every situation and always remained positive. Even though she was a South Carolina native, she loved her Duke University basketball, Clemson University Tigers football, Lady Gamecocks Basketball as well as Dallas Cowboys football.

Willis met and fell in love with Sharon, her soulmate, best friend, life partner, and wife on Labor Day weekend, September 1997, and their adventure/ journey began. They were married on September 18, 2010. Willis’ spirit was witty, compassionate, loving, and caring. She has always been there for her family and friends. Whether it was sharing her love, a hug, joke, support, or encouragement, there was nothing that would stop her from being there for you. Sharon and Willis caught the travel bug and travelled all over the world with stops in Denmark, Sweden, Mexico, Canada, the Virgin Island, Australia and the Bahamas. Willis loved Hawaii and was able to travel there multiple times.  They enjoyed going on trips to the National and State Parks with memorable adventures in the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion, Joshua Tree, Aruba National Park, Sequoia, Acadia, the parks and monuments in the Washington DC area as well as Blue Ridge National Parkway, Jockey's Ridge State Park, and Falls Lake State Park.  Sharon even got her to go hiking, canoeing, and kayaking on several trips but never camping, even though she tried on numerous occasions. No matter where she traveled, she always enjoyed watching the sunset on the beach, lake, or mountain. Their goal was to go to every state, and they almost made it.  Many of these adventures were shared via their yearly Christmas Cards that Willis created. They also accomplished some bucket list activities: riding in a hot air balloon, hugging a sequoia/redwood tree, riding an ATV in the desert, traveling to Australia to see the Syndey Opera House and walk the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  They had their first trip together to the Bahamas in 1998 and as it happened their last international trip was to the Bahamas in January 2024.

Willis loved and cherished her family. She was always on the phone playing games online and talking for hours with her sister Gloria and nieces, Shondra and Gynessa. She loved her mom, Mildred, and there was no doubt that Mildred would live with us in her golden years, as she did for many years. She kept us on our toes, and we have many stories of her getting turned around and roaming hospitals, hotels, and the neighborhoods trying to buy or get cigarettes. But losing Gloria in 2022 was so challenging for Willis as she did not get to see her much during COVID-19 pandemic. 

She made multiple road trips to make sure to see her family often, attending birthdays, holiday events, graduations, and sports games especially her great nieces Layla, Kayla, Geeneva and great nephews Savion and Jadon. Her major wish was for all her nieces, nephews and godchildren to finish high school and obtain college degrees. We are currently establishing a fund to support them in their future endeavors.

In the beginning of her relationship with Sharon, Willis was amazed when she attended one of the Bratton/Beard gatherings for the first time. She kept saying all of these people are your relatives!  She embraced everyone and went about trying to remember their names and connection. Before she knew it, she felt like family, too. The family reunions were the best. Willis said she did not start gaining weight until she met Sharon. From Aunt Shirley's red velvet cake and chicken/dumplings to Aunt Ella’s yams or sweet potato cobbler and my cousin Pam's cakes, she swears she gained forty pounds. When the Beards had their first family reunion, she said I will never remember everyone’s name as even a large barn could not contain us all.

She was preceded in death by her parents, James and Mildred Page and her sister, Gloria Page Woodard.

Mrs. Willis Page leaves to cherish her precious memory: her wife of 13 years, Sharon D. Beard;  sisters-in-law, Regina Beard (Durham, NC), and Sandra (Charles) Camp (Gastonia, NC); a brother-in-law, Stanley Woodard (Columbia, SC); her nieces, Gynessa Woodard and Shondra Woodard (Columbia, SC), Rhonda B. Powell (Raleigh, NC), and Whitney Cohn (Gastonia, NC); her nephew, E. Jasin (Precious) Beard (Gastonia, NC), and a host of great-nieces, great-nephews, godchildren, cousins, many other loving relatives, and caring friends, all of whom will miss her dearly.

In lieu of flowers, consider making a donation to the college/education fund being established or to Duke Hospice in her name.

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