Wanza Joy Walker Broome, 100, died peacefully in her sleep on April 25, 2026 in Madison, MS.

Born to Bennie and Ella Walker on May 12, 1925, in Auburn, Mississippi, she was the second of four children. She grew up in Auburn, where she enjoyed country life. She loved to walk barefooted around the farm, helping in the garden and her father’s molasses mill. She attended Mars Hill Baptist Church and was baptized in the Amite River. In 1943 she entered the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. and graduated as an R.N. from Baptist Hospital in 1945. She was living in Baton Rouge and working as a public health nurse when she went on a blind date and met Charles Larue Broome. They married in 1951 at Mars Hill and remained married for 69 years until his death in 2020. They lived briefly in Prentiss, MS, then moved to Birmingham, MI and then Shreveport, LA. When Charlie decided to seek further education, they moved first to Baton Rouge where he attended graduate school at LSU, and then to Tuscaloosa, AL where he attended the University of Alabama. Wanza supported their family while Charlie was in school as an OB Nurse. As Charlie started his teaching career, they moved to Fort Worth TX and then Houston TX. Eventually they settled in Greenville, NC where he was Associate Dean and developed and led the MBA program at East Carolina University. Wanza took on new roles, welcoming new faculty spouses and hostessing social functions for the Business School faculty, their spouses, and for her church.

After retirement, they moved to a house on Kerr, Lake, Va. Wanza enjoyed the quiet lake life. At Kerr Lake, they enjoyed welcoming friends and family to visit and living next door to the weekend home of their daughter and son-in-law and their two grandchildren.

In 2010, Wanza and Charlie moved from Virginia back to Mississippi, where they lived together at St. Catherine’s Village in Madison. There she enjoyed living closer to her siblings, Charlie’s siblings, and to nieces and nephews from both her and Charlie’s families.

In her final years, Wanza was cared for by a team of caregivers who loved her and whom she loved.

Wanza was kind and happy. She was always willing to help, whatever the project. Wanza loved to cook and sew. She never stopped gardening and provided family and neighbors with fresh produce all summer. She loved to sing, especially the hymns she learned when she was young. But most of all, Wanza liked people and made friends wherever they lived and many of these became lifelong friends. She had a happy and bright spirit and loved to laugh. She made other people feel at ease. One of her important legacies is how much she loved and enjoyed her grandchildren and taught them important life skills, by lesson and by example.

She is preceded in death by her parents; sister, Kay Brewer, and her son-in-law, James Warden Early. She is survived by her daughter, Belinda Broome Early; her grandchildren Samuel McPhail Early and Ellen Early Landers, and her husband Dustin; her great grandsons, Odin Charles Landers, and Griffin James Landers. She is also survived by her sister Lynrose Lymberis, and brother Jimmy Walker, and his wife Anne. She is also survived by multiple generations of nieces and nephews from both her and Charlie’s families.

When her daughter Belinda was a teenager and trying to decide what she wanted to do with her life, she got a lot of advice. The advice she always valued most was the simple advice that Wanza gave her: “Be happy.” This is what Wanza wanted for everyone she met.

She will be forever loved, remembered, and missed.

A service will be held on Saturday, June 6 at Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home in Flowood, MS. The family will welcome visitors from 9-11 a.m. The service will be held at 11 a.m., with lunch for family and friends afterwards. A brief graveside service will be later that day at 4 p.m. at Mars Hill Baptist Church in Summit, MS.