Shelby Jean Sewell Hales, “Mickey”, joined her heavenly family on February 17, 2010 following a lengthy illness of COPD.
She was seventy three. Mickey was the baby of eleven children born to John Thomas and Minnie Lillian Bearden Sewell on October 17, 1936 in Stanton, AL.
She became a military wife when she married USAF Staff Sgt. G. O. Hales on February 4, 1953. After traveling with her husband and young children to many Air Force Bases, both overseas and stateside, in 1965 they were assigned to Keesler A. F. B in Biloxi. In the early seventies while being a stay at home wife and mother to two children she entered her “working” years at Biloxi Amusement Park on Hwy 90, working for “Stub” and Jackie Merriam. It was during this time she became interested in law enforcement and joined the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office as a re-serve deputy. Later she worked for the Biloxi Police Dept. as a dispatcher.
Many of the mid seventies CB radio enthusiasts will remember her as “Mickey Mouse on the Magnolia Base.” Before Mickey’s diagnosis of COPD she spent her time collecting antiques, flea marketing, fishing and spending many hours with her only grandchild, Tracie Marie.
She is preceded in death by her parents; brother George Chester Sewell; sisters Odell Sewell, Hazel Wallace, Willie Dee Mauer, Murrel Tucker, Murvis Davis, Alberta Nichols, and Mary Louise Tyler; and in-laws Milton C. and Minnie Lou Green Hales.
She is survived by her husband of 57 years Glenndell O. Hales of Biloxi; daughter and son-in-law Penny and Thomas Edwards of Biloxi; son Tracy O. Hales of LaPlace, LA; granddaughter and husband Tracie Marie and Brian Craddock, great-granddaughter Ella Claire Craddock of Westfield, IN; sister Ethelene Mitchell and brother Willard Sewell of Selma, AL; brother-in-law Eldridge Hales of Saucier; dear friends Robert and Janell Garnett of San Antonio, TX; and many cousins, nieces and nephews.
Graveside services will be officiated by Don Leo at the Biloxi National Cemetery on Monday, February 22nd at 10:00 am. In lieu of flowers the family wishes donations be made to the American Lung Association at www.lungusa. org or to the American Cancer Society’s Biloxi Relay for Life at www.relay-forlife.org/biloxi.