Mrs. Ruby Mae Fanning - Mills

May 1, 1949 - January 3, 2020

Public Viewing for Mrs. Ruby Mae Fanning - Mills will be Sunday, January 12, 2020 from 1:00 P.M till 6:00 P.M. at A. A. Dicks Funeral Home Sullivan Chapel, located 2548 Main Street, Columbia, SC 29201. Services will be held on Monday, January 13, 2020 at 11:00 A.M. at Friendship Baptist Church, located 1237 House Street, Columbia, SC 29204. Interment will follow at Fort Jackson National Cemetery, 4170 Percival Road, Columbia, SC 29229. Mrs. Ruby Mae Fanning-Mills was born on May 1, 1949 to the late Willie T. Watts, Sr. and Sallie Bell Simpson Watts, in Columbia, South Carolina. She departed this life on January 3, 2020 at Prisma Health Richland Hospital. She was educated in Richland County public schools and was employed as a CNA for many years. She enjoyed being creative with her sewing machine and enjoyed shopping, spending time with her family at cookouts. She was a dedicated member of Friendship Baptist Church, and served on the Deaconess Ministry. She loved the Lord with all her heart and always quoted “The God I serve is a mighty good God.” In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her sisters: Betty Jean Ellison, Rosa Bell Burrell, Barbara Ann Smith, Josephine Gilyard, and her brothers: Eddie James Brown, Joe Louis Ellison, and Charles Fanning former husband. Left to cherish loving memories are: her loving husband Deacon Walter Mills; sons, Jerome Fanning, of Columbia, SC, Steven Fanning, Charles Fanning, of San Diego, CA; a daughter, Sharonda Fanning, of San Diego; stepson, Gerard Mills, of Greenville, SC; sisters, Nannie Smith, Katherine Robinson, Debra Livingston, Deidre Goines, of Columbia, SC; and Sallie Hopkins of Philadelphia, PA; two brothers, Willie and Rudolph Watts both of Columbia; 12 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren; daughter-in-law, Crystal Fanning, brothers-in-law, John Livingston, James Robinson, James Smith, Freddie Washington, of Columbia, SC, Willie Lee Fanning, of Cayce, SC, sisters-in-law, Vernetta Watts, Jaton Watts, Mary Darby, Rosetta Rice, Inetha Washington, of Columbia, SC, Lillie Fanning, of Cayce, SC; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends all of whom will miss her dearly. Please leave the family your condolences and prayers. The Fanning - Mills family, acknowledges with grateful appreciation, all of your kind expressions of love and sympathy. Thank you for helping us care for our families. A. A. Dicks, Sr. and Staff.