Funeral Services for Ginger Amyx Briscoe, Age 88 of West Plains, Missouri will be held on Friday, October 23rd, 2026 at The First Christian Church, West Plains, Missouri, beginning at 11:00 AM. Visitation will precede the service, beginning at 10:00 AM. Burial will take place in The Oak Lawn Cemetery, West Plains, Missouri.
Arrangements under the direction of The Robertson-Drago Funeral Home, West Plains, Missouri.
Ginger Amyx Briscoe, a lifelong resident of the West Plains community and a beloved mother and grandmother, passed away peacefully on October 20, 2026, at Cedarhurst Senior Living at the age of eighty-eight years. Born on May 21, 1938, in Bakersfield, Missouri, Ginger was the daughter of Elbert and Mildred (Patillo) Amyx. She graduated from West Plains High School with the Class of 1956. Two years later, on April 26, 1958, she married Bill Briscoe. Together, they built a beautiful life in West Plains, celebrating forty wonderful years of marriage just before Bill’s passing in 1998.
Ginger was a brilliant mind and a passionate educator who dedicated more than four decades to shaping local futures. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Southwest Missouri State College and a master’s degree from the University of Mississippi, and was just two semesters away from completing her Ph.D. Her teaching journey began at Howell Valley School and West Plains High School, but her true academic home became Missouri State University-West Plains (originally the SMSU West Plains Residence Center), where she began teaching in 1965. For nearly 40 years, she guided countless students through the complexities of accounting, business, and statistics before retiring in 2002.
Her expertise wasn’t just academic; in her early years of teaching, she also worked alongside her sister, Bertie, keeping the books in the front office at their parents’ business, Amyx Dairy, until the business sold in 1981. In 1979, she earned her Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license. After gaining experience with a local firm, she successfully launched her own practice, G. A. Briscoe, CPA. She later remodeled the old Amyx Dairy building, moving her CPA firm into that special location and serving her community there until she finally hung up her calculator in 2020 at the remarkable age of 82.
Beyond her professional achievements, Ginger was a woman of deep faith and a lifelong member of the First Christian Church. While she took her work seriously, Ginger truly knew how to live. She made sure the family set off on a travel adventure often. In her later years, that adventurous spirit took her to Tunica, Mississippi. Nearly every other weekend, Ginger could be found at the casinos with her friends and family. A powerhouse at the slot machines, she would play from Friday when they arrived straight through until Sunday. Anyone who knew Ginger knew better than to interrupt her focus—that sharp accounting brain of hers was always at work, meticulously calculating patterns and trying to predict exactly how many spins it would take for the numbers to align. Whenever she said goodbye to those she loved, Ginger’s parting words were always a gentle, smiling reminder: “Don’t work too hard.” It was a simple phrase that captured her philosophy on life—work hard, but never forget to enjoy it.
Ginger is survived by her daughter, Melissa Amyx Wharton (Charlie); grandchildren, Shelby Amyx Smith, Karsyn Shelton Smith, and Sawyer David Smith (Jade); her brother-in-law, Larry Judd, all of West Plains; and nephew, Tab Judd (Kip Altstaetter) of Houston, Texas. Her parents, husband; mother and father-in-law, and sister Bertie Judd, precede her in death.
