'She made sure everybody ate.' New scholarship to honor longtime Canton school employee – Canton Repository
CANTON − A devoted mother who helped hundreds of school children is being remembered for that service and for her faith.
The children and friends of the late Lillie Stokes are launching a scholarship foundation in her honor during a special service at 11 a.m. Oct. 12 — her birthday — at the Sherrick Road Church of God, 1121 Sherrick Road SE.
“The plan is to tailor the message around what she stood for and her dedication and commitment,” said the Rev. Shawn Lemon, senior pastor. “She was a remarkable woman, somebody anybody could model their lives after in terms of servanthood and commitment.”
Two $1,000 scholarships will be awarded to a boy and a girl in the Canton City School District during this school year.
Stokes, who died on April 5 at age 91, served as the lunchroom director at the former Allen School for 27 years.
She also was a mom, raising a blended family of 13 children.
Stokes’ son Ron Stokes said it wasn’t unusual for his mother to purchase lunch for Allen students who couldn’t afford it.
“She was a very loving person who cared about others in every regard,” said Ron Stokes, a former McKinley High and Ohio State University basketball star. He is a Buckeyes basketball analyst and president and CEO of Three Leaf Productions in Columbus.
Ron Stokes and his sister, Patrica Asburry, are spearheading the foundation in partnership with their mother’s church.
“My mom was a giver,” Asburry said. “When we would be out, kids would come up to her and thank her buying them lunch.”
Stokes said applicants must be McKinley High seniors with a minimum 3.0 grade point average who have a commitment to attend college.
“My mother was a server, committed to her church and community,” Ron Stokes said. “So, one of the criteria is they’re going to have to write an essay explaining why they are deserving of the award. And in that, they have to let us know about their community involvement, or any kind of service that they have given to their community.”
He said the scholarship’s foundation committee is working in conjunction with McKinley’s guidance office. More details about the application process will be announced in early 2026.
The committee members include Ron Stokes, Asburry, Lemon, Don Johnson and the Rev. William Wallace Luke, a longtime friend who delivered Lillie Stokes’ euology.
“She was a people person; a very strong person,” Luke said. “She was the type of person, if a child was underprivileged and wasn’t on the free lunch program, she made sure everybody ate.”
Luke said she raised successful children.
“She was an excellent mother and a good friend to people,” Luke said. “She was very involved in her church. She was just a great woman of God and a wonderful community person. She would help anybody in need.”
Stephanie Rushin Patrick said she went to school with some of Lillie Stokes older stepchildren. She was the principal when Lillie Stokes worked at Allen. In 2020, the school was renamed Stephanie Patrick School.
“She was a very special lady,” Patrick said. “Mrs. Stokes was always positive and encouraging with students, staff, parents and our South East community. Our relationship was on a personal level. I especially admired her quiet strength and supportive nature.”
“Thank God we were able to have her touch our lives,” she added.
A native of Macon, Georgia, Lillie Stokes arrived in Canton in 1958 to join a sister. She later met her husband, Frank Stokes. The two married in 1960.
Asburry said her mother was the only one of nine siblings to graduate from high school. The siblings said their mother was a spelling and crossword whiz who loved the color purple and game shows.
“One of her favorite scriptures was Psalms 37:25,” Asburry said. “She told me that when she was achild, her mother told her, ‘Don’t love nothing more than you love God.'”
For more information, contact the church office at 330-456-1165.
Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP
