Funeral services for Ms. Shannon W. Stokes , 33, of 7310 Oak Crest Drive, Apt. 212, Columbia, and formerly of Bamberg, will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010, at Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia, with the Rev. Charles Jackson Sr. and the Rev. James B. Adams officiating. Burial will be in Bamberg Memory Gardens in Bamberg. There will be no public viewing.

Shannon Wynette Stokes died Thursday, Oct. 20, at Palmetto Health Richland Hospital in Columbia following a brief illness. Shannon was a loving daughter, sister and friend to many people all across the Southeast.

Last year, Coach Stokes received her master of science degree in counseling from Webster University, and in 2001, she received a bachelor of science degree in physical education from South Carolina State University. Coach Stokes was a 1995 graduate of Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School in Bamberg. She was born Nov. 9, 1976.

Coach Stokes enjoyed a wonderful coaching and teaching career in Richland, Lexington, Sumter and Fairfield counties. When Coach Stokes passed, she was employed as a physical education instructor and coach for Richland County School District One at Bradley Elementary. While a student at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School, Ms. Stokes was a star tennis and basketball player. In 1995, with the late Coach Al Ramsey serving as her tennis coach and the head coach for the South All-Star team, she was selected to play in and won her singles All-Star tennis match. Combining her love for tennis and working with young people, during the summer of 2001, Coach Stokes worked as a tennis instructor for the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP) at Voorhees College in Denmark. From 1997 to 1999, Coach Stokes served as a volunteer coach for the City of Orangeburg Parks and Recreation Department.

She served as president of the South Carolina State University Health and Physical Education Club from 1999 to 2000. She received the Victor E. Kerr Award for Excellence in Physical Education from the department. Coach Stokes was also the 1999 to 2000 SCSU Miss Health and Physical Education. In 1999, she was selected as the National Association for Sport and Physical Education Student of the Year. In 2000, Coach Stokes received the Clemmie Hill Scholarship for Excellence in Physical Education. Coach Stokes also held membership in several professional and physical education organizations, including the S.C. Alliance for Physical Education, Health, Recreation and Dance, the S.C. Education Association, the National Education Association and the S.C. Athletic Coaches Association. Shannon was also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She pledged during her undergraduate years at S.C. State University.

Shannon served as president of the SEKOTS Foundation, a foundation that her mother founded to primarily provide college scholarships for students from Bamberg County.

In addition to many family members, friends, wonderful co-workers and loved ones, she will be remembered and always loved by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Stokes of Bamberg; her sister and brother-in-law, Dr. Kimberly Stokes Wolfe and William Wolfe of Columbus, Ohio; her brother, Kyle Stokes and her grandmother Mrs. Frances S. Johnson of Bamberg.

The family will receive friends at Shannon's parents' home at 473 Berte Carter Drive in Bamberg on Friday, Oct. 22, 2010, between the hours of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Following the burial, the family will greet friends at the parents' home until 8 p.m. Honorary pallbearers and flower girls will be close friends of Shannon from the Richland County Recreation Commission and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

Memorials may be made to the SEKOTS Foundation, P.O. Box 931 Bamberg, SC, 29003.

Friends may call at the residence and at the funeral home.

Sacred arrangements are entrusted to Dash's Funeral Home of Bamberg.