Rosa Frances "Rose" Tatum

Rosa Frances “Rose” Tatum, 87, passed away on Tuesday, December 1, 2015 in Rising Star, Texas. Funeral services will be 2:00p.m., Monday, December 7, 2015 at Elliott-Hamil Chapel of Memories, 542 Hickory St. with burial following in Abilene Municipal Cemetery – Cedar Hill Section under the direction of Elliott-Hamil Funeral Home. Visitation will be from 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. at the funeral home prior to the service.

Rose was born on October 31, 1928 in Abilene, Texas to the late Lee Columbus Ray and Leona Wetsel Ray. She married Bobby Joe Tatum on January 15, 1946 and they had three children together. In 1961 Rose went to work sewing auto upholstery for a seat cover center and in 1979 Rose and her son Phillip started their own auto upholstery business as “Tatum’s Trim Shop”. After 41 years, Rose retired in 2002. She was a very talented lady and sewed clothes for all of her children - even blue jeans for her son. Rose could make something out of nothing and was also a very good cook. A meal for the cousins and extended family was always a welcomed treat. Although she didn’t have a lot, her home always looked neat and inviting. Rose was a soft spoken person that never raised her voice and was very slow to anger.

She was preceded in death by her parents; and her husband. Survivors include her three children, Sherry Kay Wilkerson and husband, Carl, Sheila Alldredge and husband, Mitchell, and one son, Phillip R. Tatum and wife, Paula; five grandchildren, Chandler Wilkerson and wife, Adriana, Matthew Alldredge, Sarah Alldredge Reynolds and husband, Brandon, Lee Tatum and wife, Britni, and Clara Tatum; and four great-grandchildren, Lucas and Emiliana Wilkerson and Elijah and Ally Tatum.