Kizzie Bernice (Ballard) Young

Funeral services for Bernice (Ballard) Young will be held on Tuesday, May 21st, 2019 at 10:00am at Reed-Culver Chapel with Brother Bobby Musgrove officiating. Her family will receive visitors on Monday, May 20th, 2019 at Reed-Culver Chapel beginning at 2:00pm until 7:00pm. Online condolences for her family may be sent to www.reedculver.com.

Pallbearers for Bernice include Mike Ballard, Steve Ballard, Beau Ballard, Jacob Ballard, JD Wheeler, and James Johnson. Her honorary pallbearers include Jeff Shrum, James Shrum and Robert Harbuck.

Kizzie Bernice (Ballard) Young was born on Tuesday, December 4th, 1934 in Qualls, OK, the daughter of Frankie and Pearl (Walker) Ballard. She grew up in a household with two brothers, George and Dewey and one sister, Lucille. She attended and graduated Tahlequah High School in 1952. She would meet and marry Jay Shrum in 1966, and they were blessed with one daughter, Tammie. She would later meet and marry her best friend, Nick Young on April 23rd, 1993 where she was blessed with two step sons and one step daughter. Bernice worked for Felts Shoe stores and Woodall School before spending many years as the Secretary to the Director of Nursing at Tahlequah City Hospital, a job she thoroughly enjoyed. The rest of her time was spent making a home for her family. Her family was everything to Bernice. She constantly called to make sure that they were alright. She loved gathering them for a special holiday or a Sunday meal. She was very artistic and could sew and paint. She enjoyed feeding the birds at her home and watching the sun set. She had a beautiful smile and a warm and loving heart, and spent a great deal of time with the grandchildren she loved so very much. She was a Christian by faith and served the Sellers Mission Church for years as its treasurer. She never missed a chance to go to church and spend time with her church family; she loved them and would do anything for them. Her beloved Nick passed away in 2018. She spent as much time as possible with those she loved. The Lord called this good and faithful servant home from her labors on Thursday, May 16th, 2019 at her home in Qualls, OK. Bernice was 84 years old. She will be greatly missed.

She is preceded in death by her mother, father, two brothers, George and Dewey Ballard, her sister, Lucille Coke, her husband Nick Young, and two grandsons, Jacob Winget and Joshua Young.

Those left to cherish her memory include her beloved children, Tammie Switzer and husband Scott of Qualls, Randy Young and wife Laura of Park Hill, Nick Young and wife Robin of Tulsa, Teresa Young of Tahlequah, and her "adopted" daughter Tracy Ross of Gore,Ok. She lives on in her five grandchildren, Kaylee Switzer, JD Wheeler, Jessica Goff, Chad Sellers, and Shontay Cunningham, her eleven great grandchildren, as well as many nieces, nephews, cousins and a host of friends and loved ones.