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Ella May (Minisee) Hawks, 95, of Hudsonville, Michigan, passed away on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, in the West Bloomfield Health & Rehabilitation Center, in West Bloomfield, Michigan.

Born in Jamestown, Michigan, to the late Raymond Edwin and Luella Mariah (Whatley) Minisee, she grew up in the rural area surrounding Grand Rapids. Farm-rural living was her favorite part of the world as she often said, “you can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take ‘the country’ out of the girl.”

After graduating from high school, she took secretarial courses, learning short-hand and office organizational skills. While working, she met and married the late Maurice E. Hawks on Christmas in 1954 and settled in Calvin Township.

She was an excellent homemaker; canning, sewing, knitting and she particularly enjoyed baking homemade sweets. She had a green thumb, growing strawberries, vegetables and indoor violet plants dripping with blooms. She was a proud and active mother, frequently volunteering to chaperone class field trips, helping with school fund raisers and supporting her children’s activities.

She loved classical music, requiring each child to take piano lessons. She was active in her church, serving in various roles from deaconess to Sabbath School secretary, assisting with Vacation Bible School and playing hymns for song service. She studied and achieved Master Guide level to lead the youth ministry in the Seventh-Day Adventist Pathfinders Club and was a decade long member of Calvin Center SDA Church (Cassopolis) and Wyoming SDA Church (Wyoming, Michigan). Family and church were always the center of her focus.

She is survived by her four children, K. Dwight Hawks (Beverly), of Farmington Hills, Michigan, Anita L. Hawks, of Austin, Texas, Dale P. Hawks (Sharon), of Bowie, Maryland, Alice M. Hawks, of Atlanta, Georgia; four grandchildren, Dale (Preston) Hawks II (Amber), of Los Angeles, California, Malcolm B. Hawks, of Los Angeles, California, Deanna Brice (Edward), of Chicago, Bryan Chatman (Ella), of Atlanta, Georgia; three sisters, Ruth E. (Minisee) Watkins, of Grass Lake, Michigan, Shirley J. Minisee, of Jenison, Michigan, Barbara J. Minisee, of Clinton Township, Michigan; one niece, Josie Hall-Downs (John), of Sweet Home, Oregon; one nephew, Michael Minisee (Stacey), of Macomb, Michigan; and a host of relatives, church members and friends. She was predeceased by one sister, Marion L. (Minisee) Hall.

Details regarding a virtual memorial service will be available through Tyus-Fields Funeral Home (fieldsfuneralhomedetroit.com).

A virtual and interment service will be at a future date. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be given to the Grand Rapids Community College Foundation Luella Minisee Memorial Scholarship Fund or Adventist Development & Relief Agency.