Bernice Cross

Bernice Cross, affectionately known throughout her neighborhood as “The Mayor of 44th Street,” was born on June 7, 1934, in Glendora, Mississippi, to Elizabeth Thomas and Roosevelt McCorkle. She was one of eleven children and the oldest of her siblings Miles, Thomas, Minnie, Bessie, Claudie, Dorothy, Otis, Bonnie, Eugene, and Hosey. She was raised primarily by her grandmother, Eva Thomas, alongside Miles and her cousins Matrie and M.C., who were more like sister and brother to her than cousins. Bernice was a woman of hard work and commitment from the very beginning, the type who put in long hours in the cotton fields of Mississippi before she was old enough to know any other kind of life. The work kept her out of school, but it never dimmed her determination. Somewhere in those early years she made a decision that would hold for the next ninety-two years: what she had been handed was not going to be what she settled for. In 1954 she welcomed her first child, Roosevelt McCorkle. Her road out of Mississippi began the following year, after her brother Miles collected money from the family to run to the store and spent every dollar of it on a one-way bus ticket to Indianapolis. He did not come back. Bernice was hot about it for a good while, but she was not one to let another person's decision become her setback, and before long she left Mississippi, making her way to Memphis, Tennessee. From there she spent time in Chicago and New York before Miles, the same brother who had taken the money and run, sent for her to join him in Indianapolis. It was there she met Stonewall Cross. The two married on December 17, 1960, and built a life together. Bernice and Stonewall welcomed five more children: Gwendia, Dorothy, Charles, Carolyn, and Connie. Six children and a full-time job did not keep her from her joy. She loved to dance, and on a Friday night after a long week you could find her in her own front room with her family around her, moving like the week had never happened. Bernice worked hard throughout her life, holding jobs at a diner, at Mechanic Laundry, and at Fort Harrison before settling into a career in Environmental Services with Indianapolis Public Schools. She gave IPS twenty-five remarkable years, earning commendations for her outstanding performance and her attendance. She did not stay retired long, and before long she was back at work part-time in the cafeteria at Lawrence North, where thousands of students only knew her as Grandma. It was during those years that Bernice went after the education she had always wanted, studying for her G.E.D. at the Indianapolis Public Library, College Avenue Branch. She believed you could learn at any stage of life, and she lived that belief out loud. She loved to travel and see the world, walking the beaches of the Bahamas and the quiet rows of Martha's Vineyard. She was a natural comedian who would hand you the truth whether you asked for it or not. When company had stayed a little longer than she cared for, she would fold her arms, look at you from her front porch, and say, “Don't you got a house?” No hard feelings. Just the Mayor calling the meeting adjourned. She was not known as the best cook, a fact her husband reminded her of regularly, but on a Saturday afternoon you could find her in her kitchen chair with the house full of people, picking and cleaning collard greens or frying catfish. She would put on a few pieces, and family would come through and ask, is this all you cooked? Bernice never argued about it. “This is what I cooked. Make it work.” Bernice departed this earthly life peacefully on July 14, 2026, in the comfort of her home. She was preceded in death by her husband, Stonewall Cross; her mother, Elizabeth Smith; her father, Roosevelt McCorkle; her stepmother, Ella May Locke; her son, Charles E. Cross; her daughter, Dorothy Jean Collins; her son-in-law, Fletcher Collins; her siblings Bonnie Dean Smith, Thomas Smith, Claudie Frank, Minnie Goliday, Miles Bonner, and Curtis McCorkle; and her grandchildren, Nekeesha Cross, Charles Cross Jr., Lamont Cross, Jeffery Cross, and Roosevelt McCorkle Jr. She leaves to cherish her memory her children, Roosevelt McCorkle (Lisa) of Detroit, Gwendia Dowell of San Antonio, Carolyn Collins of Detroit, and Connie Cross of Indianapolis; her adoptive daughter, Tayliawna Cross; her adoptive son, Jeffery Cross Jr.; 22 grandchildren; 38 great-grandchildren; 16 great-great-grandchildren; her cousins, Matrie Barrett and Stella McCorkle; her dear friend, Norma Brooks; and a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.

Bernice Cross

June 7, 1934 - July 14, 2026