Rebecca Taylor Stribling

Services will be Thursday, December 12, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. from McClain-Hays Chapel with visitation beginning at 12:00 noon until service time.  Rev. Chris Young will officiate.  Interment will follow at Cedarlawn Cemetery.   Rebecca Taylor Stribling answered the Lord’s call to return home on December 9, 2019.  She was born Rebecca Ann on December 5, 1927, to Pearl Henson Taylor and George M. Taylor and raised in Philadelphia.  She met the boy who would become her husband on the first day of elementary school, Richard G. “Dick” Stribling. They eventually married and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, so he could attend school at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry.  After graduation they returned to Philadelphia where Dick started his optometric practice and Rebecca became a business woman opening a women’s clothing store on the square, The Charm Shop, where the first bikini was sold in Philadelphia to a young woman moving to Hollywood to start a movie career.  They had two children, Glen Henson and Richard Kent Stribling.  After the birth of her sons she closed her business to become a fulltime wife and mother.  She was dedicated to her family and cared for her home and yard.  She was an avid gardener maintaining a large lot in which she cultivated many flowering plants, especially azaleas.  She was dedicated to her church, serving in both the Presbyterian and Methodist churches at different times in her life.  Later in life, after Glen and Kent both graduated optometry school, following in the footsteps of their father, she decided to return to the business world by opening Stribling Printing, which she successfully managed until the effects of Alzheimer’s disease made that no longer feasible.  During her adult years she was very active in the local community.  She was one of the original organizers of what would become Philadelphia Neshoba County Arts Council, eventually serving as President.  She was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Neshoba County Fair Association where she served as secretary/treasurer, and a member of the Philadelphia Rotary Club.  She cherished her many friends. On a rainy day one of her favorite things to do was to get in the car with one or two of her close friends and go on a road trip, usually antiquing.  She will be greatly missed by Glen and Kent, as well as Kent’s family, wife, Mitzi; grandsons, Taylor, Tyson and wife, Paige, and Trent; and her great-grandchildren, Hallie Grace, Campbell and Hampton; as well as other extended family members and friends. She was preceded in death by great-granddaughhter, Mary Lawson Stribling.    In lieu of flowers, family requests memorials be made to First United Methodist Church of Philadelphia, Philadelphia/Neshoba County Arts Council, or your favorite charity.  Pallbearers are Taylor Stribling, Tyson Stribling, Trent Stribling, Rudy Posey, Larry Stribling, and Mike Tinsley.