Adelle Waits

Adelle Waits passed away at Claiborne Memorial Medical Center on May 10, 2024. Funeral service for Mrs. Adelle Waits will be held on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home in Arcadia, LA. with Bro. Stephen Beard officiating. Burial will follow at Hurricane Cemetery. The visitation will be held on Wednesday, prior to service, beginning at 12:00 p.m. 

Ruth Adelle Foster Waits was born to Jasper Bearden Foster and Eva Jane Lee Foster in the community of Ogemaw near Stephens, Arkansas on September 22, 1925. She attended schools in Minden, Sibley, and Homer, graduating from Homer High School in 1942. After graduation she worked at the Continental Trailways bus station in Minden until her marriage to A. L. Waits of Arcadia in April 1943. Over the next few decades, she devoted herself to her family and also assisted her husband in their business, Arcadia Cleaners.  She found her true calling, however, when she became a nurse in the 1970s, first as an LPN and then as an RN, finishing her course work at Louisiana Tech and becoming licensed less than a year after her husband’s sudden death in 1977. She worked at Lincoln General Hospital, then at Bienville General Hospital until it closed, and at Leslie Lakes Retirement Center. At various times in between she worked in home health care and at Willow Ridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. In addition, she taught in a training program for LPN students. She loved being a nurse, working until age 93, and in turn was loved by her patients and coworkers. Her skills and bedside manners were widely admired.

She was preceded in death by her husband, A. L. Waits, by her parents, and by all six of her siblings:  Ozelle Lucky, Corbin Foster, Howard Foster, J.D. Foster, Wanda Lou McDaniel, and Jimmie Green. She is survived by a son, Lonnie J. Waits of Arcadia, Louisiana; a daughter, Ruth Ann Waits Hunt, and husband John T. Hunt of Livermore, California; and six grandchildren:  John P. Hunt of Davis, California; Christina Waits Menefee of Burlington, Kentucky; Jeffery  P. Hunt of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Thomas W. Hunt of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Joshua C. Waits of Monroe, Louisiana; and Joseph A. Waits, Sr. of Arcadia, Louisiana.  She is also survived by eleven great-grandchildren, five great-great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. 

The family expresses deep gratitude to Dr. Clifton Salmon and the Claiborne Memorial Medical Center staff for their compassionate care during her final illness.

Adelle had a special place in her heart for children, especially children who are ill or disadvantaged in any way. Contributions in her memory to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital would be greatly appreciated.

Serving as pallbearers will be John P. Hunt, Jeffery P. Hunt, Thomas W. Hunt, Joshua C. Waits, Joseph A. Waits, Sr. and Joe Waits. Serving as junior pallbearer will be Joseph A. Waits, Jr.