Tennessee, U.S., Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909
Mrs. Odessa Ross
Mrs. Odessa Ross of Chattanooga died Saturday, Jan. 23, 1999, in a local nursing home. She was 110.
Survivors include a niece, Thelma Partridge; cousin, Lenora Jones; and several great-nieces and nephews, all of Nashville.
A graveside service will be Thursday at 1 p.m. in Highland Memorial Gardens with the Rev. Wayne Johnson officiating.
The body will be at the funeral home Thursday after 9 a.m.
Arrangements are by Taylor Funeral Home, Chattanooga.
Nellie Holcomb
Nellie M. Holcomb, a member of Midway Baptist Church, died Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1999, in a local hospital. She was 100.
Mrs. Holcomb, a resident of Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., was a native of Gadsden, Ala. She had lived in the North Georgia area for the past 35 years and was a member of Midway Baptist Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 63 years, James N. Holcomb, and three sons, James N. Holcomb Jr., G.W. and Wayne Holcomb.
Survivors include six daughters, Jane Hawkins, Chattanooga, Sarah Thompson, Ringgold, Ga., Adelle Phillips, Sequatchie, Tenn., Nellie Sue Sexton, Lookout Mountain, Ga., Estelle Graham, Lakeview, Ga., and Sadie Shaw, Fort Oglethorpe; a sister, Inice Stovall, Scottsboro, Ala.; 34 grandchildren; 38 great-grandchildren and 15 great-great-grandchildren.
The funeral will be Thursday at 1 p.m. at Heritage Funeral Home, Battlefield Parkway, with the Rev. Kenneth Brown and the Rev. Ronnie Childress officiating.
Burial will be in Lakewood Memory Gardens, South.
The family will receive friends today after noon at the funeral home.
Mildred Sally Frost, 88
Mildred Sally Frost, widow of former Hamilton County Judge Chester Frost, died Thursday, April 29, 1999, at her home. She was 88.
Mrs. Frost, a resident of Red Bank for almost all of her life, was a member of Red Bank Baptist Church for more than 60 years.
She was a member of the Friendship Sunday school class and was a lifetime member of the Red Bank Lioness Club.
Survivors include two sons, Jack L. and James B. Frost, both of Chattanooga; four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
The funeral will be Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Coulter Chapel of Lane Funeral Home with Dr. Fred Steelman and the Rev. C. Henry Preston officiating.
Burial will be in Chattanooga Memorial Park.
The family will receive friends today from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be made to Red Bank Baptist Church, 4000 Dayton Blvd., Chattanooga, TN 37415, or Bethel Bible Village, 3001 Hamill Road, Hixson, TN 37343.
Mary Montague Porter
Mary Rhoda Montague Porter, who served many years on the board of the Children's Home/Chambliss Shelter here, died Tuesday, March 23, 1999, at her home on Elder Mountain.
Mrs. Porter, a lifelong resident of Chattanooga, was the daughter of the late Norton Thayer and Enona Bair Montague and the sister of the late William L. Montague.
She graduated from the Bright School and Girls Preparatory School, and attended Smith College and Katharine Gibbs School in New York.
Mrs. Porter was a dedicated civic worker with a particular interest in the welfare of children. A 1971 newspaper article on her life and work carried the headline 'Children's Home Is Where the Heart Is.'
She served two terms as president of the Children's Home board. As chairman of the Extended Services program, she led the board in changing the home's operation from full-time residential care to its highly successful Around the Clock program, enabling working parents to obtain care for their small children while they are at work.
Former President George Bush later honored the Children's Home as one of his Thousand Points of Light.
Mrs. Porter's last service to the Children's Home was in 1989, when she and the late Henry Trotter headed a fund-raising drive to support the new activities building at the home.
She performed many years of patriotic service work on the board of the National Society of Colonial Dames in Tennessee and as chairman of its Chattanooga Town Committee. Her Colonial Dames service culminated in her eight-year term as Tennessee Regent on the board of Gunston Hall, the Virginia home of the patriot-statesman George Mason, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and father of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.
Mrs. Porter's service on the Gunston Hall board included work on its library committee and coordinating Tennessee publicity on the annual Bill of Rights Day. In 1988, after many years of effort, she succeeded in obtaining for the Gunston Hall Library the Pittman papers, a voluminous collection of scholarly notes on George Mason prepared by constitutional lawyer Carter Pittman of Dalton, Ga.
Mrs. Porter's other public service included terms on the boards of the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities, the Louise Currey Home, the Chattanooga YWCA and Sources, a Chattanooga agency formed to provide merit scholarships for gifted children.
Survivors include her husband, Dudley Porter Jr.; nephews, Dr. Robert Montague, Elder Mountain, Dr. Norton Montague, Birmingham, Ala., Will, Deadrick and Carrington Montague, all of Lookout Mountain; a niece, Mrs. Robert Awerkamp, St. Marys, Kan.; several grandnephews and grandnieces.
A graveside service will be Thursday at 2 p.m. in Forest Hills cemetery with Ben Haden and Lea Clower officiating.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Children's Home or a favorite charity.
The family will receive friends one hour before the service at Wann Funeral Home.
Martha Robbs
Martha 'Harvey' Robbs, an emergency room nurse at Erlanger Medical Center for 25 years, died Tuesday, March 9, 1999, in a local hospital. She was 74.
Mrs. Robbs, a resident of Harrison, was a member of Ridgedale Baptist Church and its Friendship Sunday school class. She was a graduate of the Baroness Erlanger Nursing School and had been a nurse for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department for 10 years.
Survivors include her husband, Bill Robbs; two sons, Stan and Bill Robbs, both of Chattanooga; a daughter, Becky Robbs Burns, Knoxville; two brothers, William Bernard Hash, Rock Island, Tenn., and Buddy Hash, Arizona; a sister, Mary Nettles, Madison Heights, Mich.; and eight grandchildren.
The funeral will be Thursday at 1 p.m. at Chattanooga Funeral Home, East, with Dr. Bill Owens and the Rev. Charles Haynes officiating.
Burial will be in Chattanooga National cemetery.
The family will receive friends today from 4 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be made to Ridgedale Baptist Church, 1831 Hickory Valley Road, Chattanooga, TN 37421.
Marshall T. DeLong Jr.
Marshall T. DeLong Jr., who retired from Southern Railway as a switchman, died Sunday, April 4, 1999, at his Signal Mountain home. He was 87.
Mr. DeLong was a member of First Baptist Church in the Golden Gateway and its Alert Bible Class. He was a member of the National Association of Retired Veteran Railroad Employees and the Senior Neighbors.
He received the Man of the Year award from his Bible class in 1998.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Nell Mae Harris DeLong, and a sister, Dorothy DeLong Parker.
Survivors include two daughters, Eleanor Johnson and Donna Shull, both of Chattanooga; four grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.
The funeral will be Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church in the Golden Gateway with the Rev. H. Hunter Huckabay officiating.
Burial will be in Chattanooga Memorial Park.
The family will receive friends today from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. at Chattanooga Funeral Home, West, and Wednesday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the church.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Alert Sunday School Class at First Baptist Church, 401 Gateway Ave., Chattanooga, TN 37402.
Marie D. Mitchell
Marie Dick Mitchell of Clarksville, Tenn., formerly of Chattanooga, died Thursday, Feb. 4, 1999, at her home. She was 90.
A native of LeRoy, Minn., she was the daughter of the late Robert and Lena Karlen Dick.
She received her masters degree from Northwestern University School of Speech and taught speech and dramatics.
She directed the Junior League Children's Theater in Birmingham, Ala., until moving to Chattanooga in 1935.
She was a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and was active for many years in the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Guild. She was a board member at the Florence Crittendon Home, and in an advisory capacity to the Department of Public Welfare for Hamilton County.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Emerson L. Mitchell.
Survivors include two sons, Jerry Mitchell, Athens, Ga., and John L. Mitchell, Clarksville; three grandchildren, John L. Mitchell Jr., and Anne Karlen Garrard, both of Nashville, and Cornelia Chapman Rocconi, Clarksville; four great-grandchildren.
Services will be Sunday at 3 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church with the Rev. Joel Huffstetler officiating.
Burial will be in Chattanooga Memorial Park.
The family will receive friends Sunday in the Ava Wright Room of St. Paul's from 2 p.m. until the time of the service.
Memorial contributions may be made to the church.
Arrangements are by Wann Funeral Home.
Marguerite M. Blanford
Marguerite M. Blanford, who was in charge of the accounting department at Baylor School for about 30 years, died Monday, Jan. 25, 1999, at Alexian Village Health Care Center on Signal Mountain. She was 90.
Mrs. Blanford was a native of Huntsville, Ala., and a charter member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Tom Blanford.
Survivors include four nieces and a nephew.
The funeral will be Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church with the Rev. Mike Nolan officiating.
Burial will be in Mount Olivet cemetery.
The family will receive friends today from 4 to 6 p.m. at Chattanooga Funeral Home, East.
