Sidney Mark Wilks
59, Columbia
Sidney Mark Wilks was born on Sept. 5, 1958, in Columbia and returned home on July 25, 2018, in Columbia. He leaves behind his mother and father, Austin and Marion Wilks; wife, Becky; two sons, Joshua Mark Wilks and Tyler Scott Wilks (Amber); two brothers, Danny Wilks (Martha) and Porter Wilks (Sissy); two sisters, Diane and Millie (Nate), and a host of nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins.
For those of you who knew Mark well, you knew that he had been very sick for a very long time. Yet, if you ever asked him how he was, he'd answer in a way that only Mark knew how, "Oh, pretty good, I guess." And then, he would more than likely ask you how you were, how your loved ones were, whether you had killed any deer or caught any fish lately and whether you had planted anything. Even the very day before he went home, he was on his usual neighborhood watch in his golf cart, checking on his neighbors.
He loved people and he loved to engage anyone in conversation. He loved talking to people of all types and tried his hardest to establish a connection with everyone. And that was probably his most endearing quality.
There are so many things to tell you about Mark. He loved to play ball (all kinds), he loved to play golf, he loved to hunt and fish and he loved any type of farm work. From his early years working at the Marion County Co-op and Wilks Feed Mill, he could tell you when to plant, what to plant, where to plant and what fertilizer to use. Even before he returned home, he was in the process of readying his fall garden.
Mark became our family's claim to fame when he won the National Tobacco Spitting Contest in 1977, drawing media attention from all over the world. So much so, that he caught the eye of a young Phyllis George when she was debuting a new series on CBS called "People." A film crew from New York City came to Bunker Hill and filmed Mark in several locations around home and capped it off enjoying a true Southern barbeque on the grounds of his home place. Mark did not repeat his victory that year, but those New Yorkers left Mississippi talking about how that Wilks family sure knew a thing or two about good food!
But of all of the things that Mark loved to do and loved to talk about, the love that he had for his family was very prominent in his life. He was constantly checking on his parents across the road, his wife and children. His "love language" was his sense of humor. You just knew that Mark loved you if he picked on you. A lot. Just ask his wife, children and siblings. He is the creator of countless skits and original songs, with his friends and family as the theme behind each one. He did many great impersonations. The videos and voicemails are still being passed around. May they never be deleted.
He loved Jesus and loved his Bunker Hill Baptist Church family. He had just recently mentioned to one of his doctors that he was looking forward to the day when he could return to church.
Probably the best biblical comparison of Mark's life would be that in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. As the lawyer asks Jesus to identify the term "neighbor," Jesus tells the story. And, like the Samaritan, Mark would stop and help anyone in need, even if he really wasn't able to. He personified the command given in Leviticus 19:18b."You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If you knew Mark Wilks, you were his neighbor, and if you were his neighbor, he loved you. Let us share that same love with our neighbors, every day, until we all meet again.
