Sumter, S.C. - Missy was born in Georgetown, South Carolina on June 6, 1978, the daughter of Cynthia Ridgeway Parker and Lendon Sutton. She was a 1996 graduate of Sumter High School and attended Central Carolina Technical College in Sumter, South Carolina and Coosa Valley Technical College in Rome, Ga. She was planning on becoming a nurse.

On May 19, 2004, she lost a valiant battle against Hodgkin's Lymphoma under the loving care of the doctors and nurses in the 8 West Bone Marrow Transplant Unit of the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina.

She shared the constant prayers of the many churches in Sumter and across the nation and she was especially beloved by the church families of Friendship Baptist Church in Sumter and Snow Springs Baptist Church in Adairsville, Georgia.

She is survived by her mother of Sumter and father of Anderson; by two sons, Mikey Allen and Christian Sutton; her stepfather, Bruce Parker; and her brother Sean Sutton, all of the home; grandparents, Dot and Howard Lowder of Sumter, Franklin and Sally Ridgeway of Manning, S.C., Opal Sutton of Adairsville, Ga., and Helen Parker of Sumter; her aunts and uncles, Timmie and Donna Ridgeway of Sumter, Chip and Brandi Lowder of Sumter, Stan and Kim Sutton of Mt. Pleasant, and Tom and Julie Sutton of Irmo; cousins, Scott Ridgeway, Chase Ridgeway, Morgan Lowder, Bobby Sutton, Cory Sutton, Saylor Sutton, Forest Sutton, and BJ Johnson; and a good friend, Jamey Collins.

She was preceded in death by her grandparents, Wyman Sutton and Woody Parker.

Pallbearers will be Ron Parker, Ken Schmidt, Bill Coon, Mike Johnson, Steve Perritt, and Rob McDonald.

Honorary pallbearers will be Rick Avins, David Wright, Tony Friday, Dave McDuffie, Thomas Ragin, Gene Weatherford, Ricky Blackmon, Chip Lane, Hastings James, Jim Barrineau and Gray Shuler.

Graveside services will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 22, at Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery with the Rev. Bobby Nance officiating.

The family will receive friends at the home, 6 Sandalwood Lane in Sumter.

Memorials may be made to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, to a scholarship fund that is being set up for Missy's children by the staff of Alice Drive Middle School,  to the Clarendon County Archives in Manning, South Carolina, or to the Sumter County Genealogical Society, 219 W. Liberty St., Sumter, SC 29150.

Missy was always in the hearts and prayers of the faculty and students of Alice Drive Middle School.