Ruby Dolphine Hiers, 95, of Sandersville, Georgia, went home to be with her Lord and Savior on Monday, May 18, 2026, surrounded by the family she loved and had faithfully lifted before God every single night of her life.

A family visitation will be held Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. at May Smith Funeral Home Chapel, Sandersville, Georgia, with the funeral service to follow at 11:00 a.m.

Graveside Service will follow Friday, May 22, 2026, 12:00 p.m. at Zion’s Grove Assembly of God in Meigs, Georgia.

Pallbearers will be Parker Wallace, Joshua Wallace, Brandon Knowles, Zach Abernathy, Eric Thompson and Wesley Vinyard.

Ruby was born April 13, 1931, in Moultrie, Georgia, to Henry Thomas Lamb and Seffie Loula May Hackle Lamb — one of twelve children raised in a sharecropping family of hard workers, shaped by a father who knew how to pray. Henry Lamb may not have stood behind a pulpit, but he planted something in his daughter that would eventually fill them.

On July 5th, Ruby married the love of her life, Perry Washington Hiers — known to everyone who loved him as Jake. Together they built a life that was anything but ordinary. For nearly 55 years, Jake was her partner in life, in laughter, and in every pulpit they ever shared.

Ruby answered the call of God on her life and was licensed as a minister in the Church of God. What followed was 48 years of faithful pastoral ministry across the state of Georgia — serving congregations at Kennesaw Church of God, McCaysville Church of God, Blanton’s Grove Church of God, and Berryton Church of God — followed by several years of evangelistic ministry that carried her message even further. She was a gifted Sunday school teacher who made the Word come alive, and a women’s conference speaker who had a way of making every woman in the room feel seen, known, and called higher.

But Ruby’s ministry never stayed inside four walls. One year, entirely on her own initiative, she crocheted lap throws for every nursing home resident in Sandersville and Oconee — because that’s simply who she was. She didn’t wait to be organized, appointed, or asked. She saw a need, she picked up her hands, and she loved people until they felt it.

At home, Ruby was equally alive and equally giving. Her hands were always at work — crocheting, arranging flowers, tending her garden, coaxing beauty out of ordinary ground. She had an eye for the overlooked and a gift for the rescued, which made her a devoted yard saler and the proud proprietor of Ruby’s Trading Post, her beloved resale store in Tifton, Georgia. Every plant she kept, every arrangement she made, every treasure she brought back to life told the same story: Ruby Hiers believed nothing — and no one — was beyond redemption. Those who knew her best will tell you she was as witty as she was wise, as funny as she was faithful. She could make a room laugh just as easily as she could make it weep, pray, or stand to its feet. She was fully, gloriously human — and she made holiness look like the most natural thing in the world.

Every night, Ruby opened her Bible and spent three hours in the presence of God. Nightly she prayed John 14 aloud in communion with her Lord, and nightly she brought every family member before Him by name — a faithful intercessor to her final breath.

On Monday, May 18, 2026, the God she had spoken to every night of her life received her into the place He had prepared.

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”

— John 14:1-4, KJV

Ruby was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Perry Washington “Jake” Hiers; her son, Jerry Hiers; her parents, Henry Thomas Lamb and Seffie Loula May Hackle Lamb; and her eleven siblings.

She is survived by her daughters, Pat Dukes (Raymond) and Shirley Wallace (Phil); her son, Tim Hiers (Sharon); seven grandchildren; seventeen great-grandchildren; ten great-great-grandchildren; and a legacy of intercession, faithfulness, and laughter that will echo through every generation that carries her name.

Condolences may be made online at mayandsmithfuneraldirectors.com

May and Smith Funeral Directors is in charge of these arrangements.