Bernice Weeks Ware

On Saturday, April 11, 2026, Bernice Weeks Ware gained her heavenly wings. She is absent from the body, but present with the Lord. Born in Smiths Station, Alabama October 8, 1923, Bernice Weeks was the third child born to Harrison and Sarah Prince Weeks.

Bernice grew up in Brimingham, Alabama. As the only girl with two older brothers, she graduated from Parker High School. Immediately after graduation, she worked to begin saving to pay for a college education. In 1944, at the insistence of her aunt and uncle, Jessie, and Dr. Thomas T Lewis, she moved to Bluefield, West Virginia, where she enrolled in Bluefield State College to major in Home Economics. At the end of her sophomore year, Bernice wanted a more challenging educational experience, and she transferred to West Virginia State College in Institute, West Virginia, where she graduated in 1948 with her bachelor’s degree in Home Economics. After graduation, she returned to Alabama, where she began her teaching career at the senior high school for black children in Anniston, Alabama. While teaching in Anniston, she served as a chaperone for the cheerleaders and had to accompany the girls to basketball games. There was a gentleman who taught math and physics at the County Training School in Anniston, who was also a basketball coach. Through a mutual friend, she was introduced to that coach, Luther D. Ware, to whom she was married, July 18, 1953. To that union, a daughter. Carol was born. The couple relocated to Cleveland, Ohio and they both had very productive and enriching careers as educators in the Cleveland Public Schools. Bernice was the Chair of the Home Economics department at Empire Junior High School for over 25 years. They both retired in June 1985.

A Diamond Life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Bernice was initiated into the sorority on May 25, 1946, in the Beta Pi Chapter. After moving to Anniston, Alabama, she served in the Anniston Alumnae Chapter. When they relocated to Cleveland, she joined the Omega Chapter of Delta, which was later chartered as the Greater Cleveland Alumnae Chapter, where she was a charter member in 1976.

In 2014, follow the passing of her beloved husband, Bernice became a member of the Columbus OH Alumnae chapter where she remained financial until her passing. Although she was in her early 90’s when she joined Columbus Alumnae, she was actively engaged in chapter activities and until the pandemic, attended chapter meetings regularly. In every Delta chapter, she participated in various committees and programs.

Bernice was baptized as a youth at Groveland Baptist church in Birmingham and while in college, joined an AME church with family members. After moving to Cleveland, she was a member at Gethsemane Baptist Church. When she moved to Columbus, she was connected to the Second Baptist Church where she always felt at home and planned to become a member prior to the pandemic when she was diagnosed with dementia. Bernice loved the Lord and spoke to Him regularly, even as dementia consumed her body and mind, her spiritual connection remained strong.

She loved word puzzles, and coloring until her cognitive abilities diminished. She wasn’t a fan of cooking but enjoyed sewing and some crafting. Very detailed oriented, she dotted ever ‘I’ and crossed every ‘T.’ Although she was not an athlete, she enjoyed watching collegiate and professional basketball, football and track and field, even supporting their daughter Carol in her youth as a sprinter and basketball player.

She leaves to cherish her memory, a daughter Carol E. Ware; Godson Elder Larry E. McCrimager; Goddaughters Sharon M. Zellner; Rev. Maggie L. Burnes; Niece and Nephew Judy and John Gore; God-Grandson Brian Malik Wood (Simone); loving nieces and nephews and a host of family and friends.

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