Ophine Pippen

Obituary
Ophine Giles Pippen was born on October 24, 1938 to Josephine Foster Pickens and Cleveland Pickens in Tuscaloosa, AL.  Because her father was a farmer, she grew up picking cotton, gardening, chopping wood, feeding animals, churning milk, drawing water and doing just about any and everything else that needed to be done to support the family.
Ophine graduated from Tuscaloosa County Training School in 1956 and later attended Stillman College.  As a young adult, she was a part of a gospel singing group called, “The Foster Sisters”.  The group traveled from church to church on Sunday afternoons uplifting the name of Jesus.  Ophine worked at Johnson Upholstery Company for many years.  This is where she learned trade of upholstery.  Additionally, Ophine was a highly skilled seamstress. She loved to make outfits for her children on special holidays.
Ophine also worked in the cafeteria at Riverside High School in Northport, AL where faculty, students and staff adored her.  Later she secured gainful employment at Partlow Mental Hospital in Tuscaloosa, AL where she retired after 25 years of service.
In February, 1959, Ophine married Hosea L. Giles.  The couple was married for 28 years and had four children (Jaki, JoAnne, Hosea, Jr, and Gail) together.  In 2002, she married Vernon Pippen of Bessemer, AL.  The two of them lived happily until his passing in 2003.  In 2010, she remarried her first love again, Hosea L. Giles.
Ophine leaves behind to cherish her memories: four children, Jaki Taggart (McKinley) of Colorado Springs, CO JoAnne Giles of Tuscaloosa, AL, Hosea L. Giles, Jr. of Tuscaloosa, AL and Gail Giles of Tuscaloosa, AL; siblings, Mary Lou Lee of Chicago, IL Ethel Brown of Tuscaloosa, AL, Maggie Foster (Nathaniel) of Cottondale, AL and Roosevelt Johnson (Virginia) of Northport, AL; and a host of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws, friends and loved ones.