Sandra (Carlisle) Panks

Sandra Carlisle Panks, age 73, resident of Cordova, Tennessee and wife of the late A.W. “Bill” Panks, departed this life Saturday afternoon, August 3, 2019, at her residence.

Funeral Services for Mrs. Panks were held at 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, August 7, 2019, at the Peebles West Funeral Chapel in Oakland with Dr. Michael Haynes officiating. Interment followed in the Fayette County Memorial Park Cemetery on Highway 64.

Sandra was born on April 29, 1946 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the daughter of the late Harold Carlisle and Ellen Ringland Carlisle. She received her early education at the Princess Gardens Grammar School in Belfast and moved to England at the age of 19. While in England, she met and married her husband, Bill.  They traveled extensively as a result of his work and it was in Venezuela that their daughter, Rachael was born.

Sandra and her family were missionaries in Europe for many years.   Sandra also had a special burden for those who suffered persecution for their faith and made several trips into then-communist Eastern Europe and China to take bibles to people there.  Sandra also returned to school and received her Bachelor of Arts in Education with honors at the age of 50.

After her husband’s death in 2004, Sandra once more felt the call to work in Asia full time as a missionary and went to South Korea and China to teach English to High School and University students there.  She touched the lives of thousands, all across the world.  She was a member of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova since 2003 and was employed as a teacher with the Shelby County School System for six years.

Mrs. Panks is survived by her daughter, Rachael and her husband, Samuel Bailey, and her beloved grandson, Alexander Bailey, of Cordova; as well as her brother, Clifford Carlisle and his wife, Roberta, of Bournemouth, England.

Those honored to serve as pallbearers were: Samuel Bailey, Alexander Bailey, Bert VanBuskirk, Larry Lemm, Jim Winchester, and Bob Miller.

The family requests that memorials be directed to Memphis Union Mission, P.O. Box 330, Memphis, TN 38101.