The Jackalicious Files

I do miss you so very much.

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Lilla Marie (French) Gonzales (58) of Golden, Colorado passed at the Exempla Lutheran Medical Center at Wheatridge, CO on July 4th, 2010. One son, Jack Taylor, II of Columbia, Tennessee a daughter, Zabrina Joy Taylor of Loveland, Colorado and daughter Kimberly Nicole Statum of Murfreesboro, Tennessee survive her along with 4 grandchildren.  Her loving husband, Ralph Robert Gonzales, recently preceded her in death.  

Born October 7, 1951 to Mississippi Delta sharecroppers Thomas French and Alice Pearl (Clark), she was part of a large family of 10 children.  She grew up helping to raise and pick cotton and also raise poultry.  After graduating from Riverside High School at Avon, MS, she began her career as a local telephone switchboard operator before marrying and becoming a professional desk clerk and had the opportunity to work with many major hotel chains in her lifetime.  She always loved her work; she achieved a degree in travel and tourism and labored in the hotel profession for approximately 25 years.  Before becoming ill, she managed the Canyon Gate Apartments with her husband Robert in Golden, Colorado.  The tenants knew her as an energetic and fun-loving woman who cared much about her family and those she worked with.  She was a creative and unique person that always made one smile.

Her father Thomas French was a born in Gibson County, TN before migrating to Mississippi with his family as a child from the Hohenwald area.  Lilla always was proud of her Tennessee and Mississippi roots and made mention of it often to friends and instilled that pride in her family. Her mother, Alice Pearl Clark was a Mississippi native of Sunflower County.

She was preceded in death by her Father, Thomas French, her Mother, Alice Pearl (Clark) French, and brother’s Johnny, Thomas Jr., Jerry French, and Terry French.  She leaves behind four sisters - Linda S. (Susie) Hamilton of Carthage, MS, Sarah Contreras of Tunica, MS, Betty Gibbs of Greenville, MS, Patricia A. (Sissy) Kilgore of Avon, MS and one brother, James E. French of Darden, Tenn.