Alice Sturdivant Bishop, 88, of Draper, passed away Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. She was a member of the Radford Church of Christ and a retired procurement specialist with IBM.
Born and raised in Radford, she attended kindergarten at McGuffey, Belle Heth School and Radford High School. She was a Girl Scout with her identical twin sister, Phoebe, and childhood friend, Norma. Alice married her high school sweetheart, Jimmie Bishop, in 1956 while he was on leave from the Air Force. After the wedding they traveled back to Spokane, Washington, by way of Yellowstone National Park, where Jimmie was stationed.
As newlyweds they would travel back and forth from Spokane to Radford during his leave time to visit family and friends. Each time traveling a different route. Eventually they would visit all 50 states, numerous National Parks, the Bahamas and Canada during their marriage. After Spokane they moved to Falls Church, Va., Manassas, Va., Cary, N.C. and in retirement to Draper, Va. where they built a house on a hill with an amazing view of Draper Valley from their front porch.
Alice was a faithful member of the Church of Christ and was loved as a favorite Bible teacher and for her hospitality, well known for her cooking, as she welcomed new families and others to their home for most of their married life. She had a love of seasonal decorations of which she had an extensive collection that included bulletin board decorations for her classrooms. Alice was very active in her church congregations. She was an excellent seamstress, Cub Scout Den Mother, in a bowling league, drove a school bus in Manassas and worked in the school office at Apex High School in North Carolina.
She loved being able to retire and move back to where she grew up and spend time visiting with grandchildren, if they didn’t come to Draper she would go to them. She could turn a day of raking leaves into fun with supplies for making s’mores for the grandchildren as well as everyone else. Whenever grandchildren or her children visited there were always fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, which didn’t last long. If they did run out, she would let the grandchildren help to mix and bake more.
During her retirement she worked at 84 Lumber in Pulaski and at Pulaski Village Apartments. She loved baseball and she and Jimmie would attend games at Calfee Park in Pulaski.
We love you Alice, Mom, Momma, Grandma and Mema and will miss you, but we know you have earned your heavenly reward.
Alice was preceded in death by her parents, William Ransom and Lula Landrum Sturdivant; and brother, Dudley Sturdivant.
Survivors include her husband, Jimmie Bishop; son, Mike Bishop (Linda); daughter, Karen Mitchell (John); six grandsons; three great grandchildren; identical twin sister, Phoebe Poff-Newlon; and numerous nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends 4 – 6 p.m. today, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, at the Mullins Funeral Home in Radford. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, at the Radford Church of Christ. Interment will follow in the Old Dublin Cemetery in Dublin.
In lieu of flowers please make donations to
Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort https://www.disasterreliefeffort.org/
City Lights Foundation of Oklahoma https://www.citylightsok.org/
St. Jude Children’s Hospital https://www.stjude.org/
Mullins Funeral Home & Crematory in Radford is honored to be caring for the Bishop family.
