Vickey Dickens Driver

A Pea Ridge community homemaker, Vickey Dickens Driver, 58, was pronounced deceased at 3:52 a.m. on April 9, 2023, at the Riverview Regional Medical Center emergency room after becoming gravely ill at her Danny Lane home.

Smith County E-911 received a call for assistance at 2:07 a.m. that Sunday morning.

Funeral services were conducted on April 14 at the Carthage chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Elder Stephen Brooks assisted by her nephew, Stetson Hall, officiated. Following the 3 p.m. services, burial was beside her brother, Dobie, in the gazebo garden at Dixon Springs Cemetery.

She was born Vickey Dee Dickens in Carthage on Sept. 10, 1964, and was one of two daughters and two sons of Edna Mae Wallace Dickens and the late James Chesley Dickens, who died on Jan. 26, 2018, at the age of 87.

A brother, Phillip Anthony “Dobie” Dickens, succumbed to cancer at the age of 55 on Sept. 9, 2015.

Mrs. Driver attended Trousdale County High School and was a recipient of her general education degree.

Mrs. Driver was saved at an early age at a tent revival in Dixon Springs, and at the time of her death, she was a member of the Bide Russell Memorial Missionary Baptist Church in the Riddleton community.

She had attended the North Gordonsville Missionary Baptist Church for the last several years.

At the Pea Ridge community home of her soon-to-be in-laws, Alex and Rozell Shoemake Driver, on Nov. 2, 1979, she was united in marriage to Pea Ridge community native Jerry Dale Driver.

The ceremony was performed by then Bide Russell pastor, elder Rodney Carter of Scottsville, Kentucky.

Mrs. Driver was a caring soul with an infectious laugh, who spent her life serving others.

She was a devoted wife, loving mother and sister, and doting grandmother to her seven grandchildren.

No matter how busy or tired she was, “Granny” always had time to play with her grandbabies. She was their pony they rode across the yard, their jungle gym to swing on, and their chauffer who was always willing to transport them wherever they needed to be.

She had been a trusted employee of the Dana Corporation in Gordonsville for 36 years and had the utmost respect from her fellow co-workers.

Having been reared on the family farm in the Dixon Springs community, she loved flowers, gardening and being an excellent cook. She enjoyed preparing large meals for all her family.

Surviving in addition to her husband Jerry of more than 43 years and her mother, Edna, are: Mr. and Mrs. Driver’s three children, daughter, Amanda Driver Hicks (and husband, Chris) and their three daughters, lovingly referred to as the Hicks chicks, Aubrey Hope, Scarlett Faith and Emma Grace Hicks of the Bluff Creek community; two sons, J.D. Driver (and wife, Nicki) and their two children, Jerry Dale (Jay) Driver III and Charlotte Ruth Driver of the Pea Ridge community, Richard Driver and Sara Vantrease and their two children, James Clayton (Clay) Driver and Gracie Jo Driver of the Grant community; sister, Trousdale County Registrar Candace Dickens Hall (and husband, Rick) of Hartsville; brother, Stanley K. Dickens (and wife, Teresa) of the Puryears Bend community of Trousdale County; sister-in-law, Janet Driver Dickens of the Tanglewood community; Mama Vickey’s special children, Trinity Potts, Kaylie Butler, Bria Butler; along with several nieces and nephews.

The Driver family has requested memorials be made to the Smith County 4-H clubs.

Sanderson Funeral Home of Carthage was entrusted with the arrangements.