Betty Sue Woods Pickens

Betty Sue Woods Pickens, age 85, resident of Oakland, Tennessee and wife of the late Bobby Pickens, departed this life Monday afternoon, March 3, 2025 at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Betty was born May 21, 1939 in Waterloo, Alabama, the daughter of the late Charlie Woods and Virgie Crider Woods. She was a member of Morris Chapel Baptist Church near Somerville, Tennessee and was a homemaker throughout her life. Betty was a mother to many of the children in her neighborhood – no one left her house hungry!

Mrs. Pickens loved the Lord and good gospel singing. She was a gardener who had a green thumb and enjoyed traveling to the Smoky Mountains with her husband. Cooking was her passion and she was famous for her cathead biscuits and cornbread. She loved her family more than anything.

Mrs. Pickens is survived by four daughters, Jeanie Armstrong (Lyn), Kathy Sanders (Norman), Tammy Diaz (John) and Lisa Doyle (Robert); her son, Joey Pickens (Becky); her sister, Rachel Mullins; her brother, Lewis Wood; fourteen grandchildren, Eric, Jenna, Ashley, Adam, Jessie, Stephanie, Andrew, Daniel, Stephanie, Elayna, Darrin, Corey, Whitney and Madison; and 23 great-grandchildren.

In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by two sisters, Irene Ezekiel and Inez Brown; and two brothers, William Wood and Carl Woods.

Graveside Services for Mrs. Pickens were held at 2 P.M. Friday, March 7, 2025 at the Fayette County Memorial Park Cemetery on Highway 64.

The family requests that memorials be directed to St. Jude Memorial Giving, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105-9959.