Mrs. Iris Marie Pruitt, lifetime resident of Tangier from a hearty lineage of the close-knit Chesapeake Bay Island community, entered her heavenly home before her Lord and Savior on March 2, 2023, at 93 years. Now, 13 years to the month after her husband’s death, she joins her beloved husband the Rev. Marshall L. Pruitt (once the successful captain of the eye-catching crab potting boat Iris Marie) in the experience of Christ’s presence.
Iris was the oldest member of the New Testament Congregation of Tangier, which will host the Memorial Service on Saturday, March 11, at 2 p.m., to celebrate God’s gracious enablement for her life full of abundant good deeds. The wake will be held Friday evening, March 10, from 6 until 8 p.m. Interment at the Sunnyridge Memorial Park Cemetery in Crisfield, Md., will follow Saturday’s Memorial Service.
Iris was born Sept. 26, 1929, to the late Stanley and Nellie Parks Pruitt. She married Marshall shortly after graduating from Tangier Combined School, and they established the well-kept, tidily manicured home near the central area of the mail boat dock on Tangier. Iris wholeheartedly managed a loving and nurturing home for their three children. She tackled every task necessary with an array of her homemaking skills to care for the family through the ebbs and flows of a hardworking waterman’s fortunes.
She and Marshall united with the New Testament Congregation on Tangier at its inception. Iris enthusiastically supported her husband in his leadership roles in the church. Consequently, myriads of visiting conference speakers and missionaries with the church received thoughtful and satisfying hospitality in her home (delectable crabcakes and soft crabs!)—for over five decades.
Not only the church family but the whole community benefited from her care, for she was a woman of active faith and passionate prayer. Her compassions compelled frequent visits to the sick, sending a meal in a time of need, bringing a word of encouragement to the downcast, praying for those without Christ (with special prayer partners), among other innumerable noble deeds known fully by Jesus.
This kind, courageous, ever industrious, faithfully reverent woman is deeply missed by her three children (and spouses): Glenn (Faye) Pruitt of Yorktown, Va., Miriam (Dr. Dwight) Singer of Claymont, Del., and Naomi Nasshan (Ret. Col. Kenneth Parks) of Williamsburg; six grandchildren; ten great-grandchildren; in addition to sister, Emily Pruitt, and nephew, Clyde Pruitt, of Tangier; and nieces, Emily and Hannah of Granville, N.Y., of her sister, Mary Lou Crockett (Turner) who predeceased her.
The Pruitt family extends sincere gratitude to York Convalescent Center, Yorktown, Va., for its gentle care during Iris’ final months.
Contributions in Iris’ memory may be made to New Testament Congregation Missions Fund, c/o Faith Charnock, P.O. Box 266, Tangier, VA 23440.
Memory tributes may be shared with the family at www.williamsfuneralhomes.com
Arrangements are by the Williams Funeral Homes, Onancock, VA and Parksley, VA.
