Clarke Co. GA - Obits from the Athens Daily News/Banner-Herald 29 Oct 1999 Thanks for permission from the Athens Daily News /Banner-Herald http://www.onlineathens.com/ ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:22 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Ruby Johnson Atlanta Ruby Mae Johnson, 88, formerly of Taliaferro County, died Sunday, Oct. 24, 1999. A native of Taliaferro County, Mrs. Johnson was a daughter of the late Andrew and Bertha Armour and was the widow of Leroy Johnson. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Minnie Wise Scott. She was a member of New Hope Baptist Church. Services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at New Hope Baptist Church, Crawfordville, with the Rev. John Dillard officiating. The body will be placed in the church at noon. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Survivors include a daughter, Elaine Wilkins Perdue, Decatur; a son, Johnny Johnson, Newark, N.J.; two sisters, Olivia Turk, Decatur, and Nettie Thomas, East Orange, N.J.; two grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews. The family is at the residence of Frances Harper, Route 2, Crawfordville. Watts Funeral Home, Union Point, has charge of arrangements. Athens Daily News, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:53 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Frank H. Carithers Jr. Comer Frank H. Carithers Jr., 69, of 674 Railroad Ave. died Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999. Mr. Carithers was a son of Bertha Carithers and the late Frank Carithers Sr. He was a retired city of Athens employee and was a member of Holly Creek Baptist Church. He was a member of the N.A.A.C.P., served on the Madison County Board of Family and Children Services and was a city council member for the city of Comer. Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Holly Creek Baptist Church with the Revs. Ronnie Gantt and Scottie Randolph officiating. The body will be placed in the church at 1 p.m. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Survivors, in addition to his mother, include his wife, Lizzie Carithers; four daughters, Cheryl Carithers Zeigler, Detroit, Mich., Rochelle Skelton, Hull, Terri Alice Carithers, Athens, and Krystal Carithers, Tuskegee, Ala.; three sons, Donnerall Deadwyler, Atlanta, Glenn Carithers and Gary Carithers, both of Comer; and a brothers, Douglas Carithers. The family is at the residence. Mack & Payne Funeral Home, Athens, has charge of arrangements. Athens Daily News, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Rogers L. Thomas Colorado Springs, Colo. Private Rogers L. Thomas, 22, died Sunday, Oct. 24, 1999. A native of Chicago, Ill., Mr. Thomas was a son of Willie and Susie Thomas of Greensboro. He was a member of Jackson Chapel Holiness Church and attended New Springfield Baptist Church. He was a 1996 graduate of Greene-Taliaferro Comprehensive High School. Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at New Springfield Baptist Church, Siloam, with the Revs. Roi Johnson, Lester Alexander, Suzette White and Jonathan Kilgore officiating. Burial will be in Greensboro City Cemetery. Survivors, in addition to his parents, include two sisters, Cassandra Wright, Athens, and Vanessa Prince, Newnan. The family is at the residence of his parents, 1416 Bowden Pond Road, Greensboro. Watts Funeral Home, Union Point, has charge of arrangements. Athens Daily News, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:37 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Ozelle English Segers Cornelia Ozelle English Segers, 56, died Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999. A native of Habersham County, Mrs. Segers was a daughter of Brady English of Demorest and Eva Mae Hill Allen of Cornelia and the late Oliver Allen. She was a homemaker and was a member of Cornelia First Presbyterian Church. Services will be at 11 a.m. today at Cornelia First Presbyterian Church with the Revs. Blaine Walker, Ken Coomer and Mickey Umbehant officiating. Burial will be in Level Grove Cemetery. Survivors, in addition to her parents, include her husband, Carroll E. Segars; a daughter, Pam Segers, Memphis, Tenn.; four sons, Kent Stewart, Tracy V. Stewart and Mark E. Segers, all of Cornelia, and Jeff Segers, Clarkesville; three sisters, Lavada Warren, Toccoa, Gail Barron, Cleveland, and Linda Garrison, Cornelia; and four grandchildren. The family is at the residence. McGahee-Griffin Funeral Home has charge of arrangements. Athens Daily News, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:53 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Charles Valdon Skelton Cornelia Charles Valdon Skelton died Thursday, Oct. 28, 1999. A native of Habersham County, Mr. Skelton was a son of the late Charlie and Callie Truelove Skelton. He was a graduate of Cornelia High School and attended Piedmont College. He was a U.S. Air Force veteran and was retired from the Cornelia Post Office with 23 years of service. He was a member of North Georgia Daylily Society, the Manchester Terrier Dog Club and Joy Baptist Church, Lakemont. Services will be at 2 p.m. at Whitfield Funeral Home, Demorest, with the Revs. Tony Goss and Johnny Jett officiating. Burial will be in Yonah Memorial Gardens with the Rev. Jimmy Hogan officiating. Survivors include his wife, Hellon Bramblett Skelton; two nieces and two nephews. Memorials may be made to Joy Baptist Church Building Fund, P.O. Box 183, Lakemont, 30552. The family will receive friends from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. today at the funeral home. Athens Daily News, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:29 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Sallie Bell Riden Carlton Sallie Bell Riden, 94, of 37 Vesta Road died Monday, Oct. 25, 1999. A native of Oglethorpe County, Mrs. Riden was a daughter of the late Byrd and Julie Smith and was the widow of Henry Walton and of W.C. Riden. She was a member of Rockey Branch Baptist Church, where she was a member of the Mother Board. Services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Rockey Branch Baptist Church with the Revs. William Jennings, Luther Mahoney and Ervin Norman officiating. The body will be placed in the church at noon. Burial will be in Fork Grove Cemetery. Survivors include a daughter, Dora Downer, Carlton; three grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; 19 great-great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews. The family is at the residence. Jones Lexington Funeral Chapel, Lexington, has charge of arrangements. Athens Daily News, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:37 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Robert Hoyt Daniel Jr. Danielsville Robert Hoyt Daniel Jr., 67, died Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999. A native of Madison County, Mr. Daniel was a son of the late Robert Hoyt Daniel Sr. and Laura Sexton Daniel. He was a veteran of the Korean War. Services will be at noon Saturday in Danielsville Memorial Gardens with the Rev. Lanny Cobb officiating. Survivors include a niece and nephew. The family will receive friends from 7-9 p.m. today at Brown Funeral Home. Athens Daily News, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:54 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Joyce S. Wise Commerce Joyce S. Wise, 77, of 620 Aderhold Rogers Road died Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999. A native of Commerce, Mrs. Wise was a daughter of the late Carlton and Lessie Keesee Massey. Services will be at 2 p.m. today at Ivie Funeral Home with the Rev. Elwyn Wilbanks officiating. Burial will be in Cabin Creek Baptist Church cemetery. Survivors include a son, Joel Wise, Athens; and a brother, Lowell Massey, Commerce. Athens Daily News, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Geneva Turner Lithonia Willie Geneva Rhodes Turner, 80, formerly of Greene County, died Monday, Oct. 25, 1999. A native of Taliaferro County, Mrs. Turner was a daughter of the late Chapman and Mary Jane Frazier Rhodes and was the widow of George Turner. She was a member of Antioch Baptist Church, Crawfordville. Services will be at noon Saturday at Greater Level Hill Baptist Church, Crawfordville, with the Revs. E. Calhoun, G. Shorter, Eulous Harris and G.F. Frazier officiating. The body will be placed in the church at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Antioch Baptist Church cemetery. Survivors include eight daughters, Idonia Kilpatrick and Susie Reaves, both of Decatur, Leola Cokely, Atlanta, Doretha Ford Williams and Dellina Weston, both of New York, Shirley Goodwin, College Park, Marilyn Parks, Rayle, and Katherine Gilmore, Sacramento, Calif.; five sons, F.B. Turner, Atlanta, Waymon Turner, Stone Mountain, George Turner and Calvin Turner, both of Lithonia, and Gilbert Turner, Dayton, Ohio; two sisters, Willie Mae Cunningham, Greensboro, and Corine Jackson, Cincinnati, Ohio; two brothers, Esper ''Bo'' Rhodes, Cincinnati, and Garnett Rhodes, Athens; 34 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews. Watts Funeral Home, Union Point, has charge of arrangements. Athens-Daily News, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:42 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Deaths Elsewhere Theodore H Benzinger WASHINGTON -- Theodore H. Benzinger, inventor of the ear thermometer and a pioneer in the field of biothermodynamics, died Tuesday at Maplewood retirement community in Bethesda, Md. He was 94. A native of Stuttgart, Germany, Benzinger became director of aero-medical department of the German air force in 1934. During the next decade, he studied decompression and physiology in pilots and was a test pilot himself. After World War II, Benzinger joined the U.S. Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, where his discoveries included the thermodynamic quantities of biochemical reactions and the mechanism for measuring temperatures in humans. His invention 40 years ago of a highly accurate ear thermometer, later modified by other researchers, made it possible to zone in on the ''human thermostat.'' Benzinger held patents for a dozen inventions. He retired from the Naval Research Medical Institute in 1970 as director of its bioenergetics division but continued working at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology. William W. Crawley Communications director TULSA, Okla. -- William W. Crawley, longtime director of corporate communications for Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, died Tuesday of cancer. He was 58. He was manager of advertising for PSO's parent company, Central and South West Corp., and director of PSO corporate communications. Crawley had been with PSO since 1983 in various roles, and had been director of the department since 1989. Crawley worked for the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise and the Tulsa World before moving into public relations. He is survived by his wife, Kennie, two sons, his mother and a brother. Karen Demirchian YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) -- Karen Demirchian, the Parliament Speaker who was admired by many Armenians for providing a stability that Armenia has lacked so severely over the past decade, was killed by gunmen in Armenia's parliament on Wednesday. He was 67. Demirchian was prominent in politics during two strongly contrasting periods. He was Armenia's Communist Party chief for 14 years when it was part of the Soviet Union. He then returned to politics in 1998, becoming parliament speaker after losing his bid to become independent Armenia's president. In the interim, he directed a semi-privatized electrical equipment factory. The factory stayed open even as Armenia's economy collapsed, and Demirchian's supporters saw that as evidence of business acumen. Demirchian also represented stability to them: he was the Communist boss from 1974 to 1988, a period when life was relatively predictable, when pensions and wages were paid on time. Thelma Gaylord OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Thelma Gaylord, who helped her husband build a media and entertainment empire, died Wednesday. She was 81. Mrs. Gaylord, wife of The Oklahoman editor and publisher Edward L. Gaylord, took an active role in The Oklahoma Publishing Co. She was an officer and director for many years of the company that includes The Daily Oklahoman, Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., and numerous broadcasting and cable outlets in several states. She went to work for WKY-TV in Oklahoma City when it was owned by The Oklahoma Publishing Co. She met Gaylord there, and the couple married in 1950. Other survivors include her children, Christy Everest and Louise Bennett, E.K. Gaylord II and Mary McClean; a sister, Dorothy Jane Swanson, and seven grandchildren. Rex Gildo MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- Rex Gildo, a German pop singer, died of heart failure Tuesday, three days after attempting suicide by jumping from his third-floor apartment window. He was 60. Authorities said Gildo had been suffering from psychological problems. Gildo, whose real name was Ludwig Hirtreiter, rode to fame in the 1960s and '70s with hits like ''Fiesta Mexicana'' and ''Speedy Gonzales.'' Xie Fei BEIJING (AP) -- Xie Fei, a leading member of China's ruling Communist Party who pushed for economic growth in the booming southern province of Guangdong, died Wednesday of an unspecified illness in Guangzhou. He was 66. Xie had been a member of the party's policy-setting Politburo since 1992. As the party's boss of Guangdong between 1991 and 1998, he pushed for rapid growth to help strengthen the province's position as a powerhouse of the Chinese economy. After senior leader Deng Xiaoping toured the province in 1992, Xie told aides to draw up plans to catch up economically with Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea within 20 years, according to a report at the time by the official Xinhua News Agency. Xie joined the Communist Party in July 1949. The Communists seized power and founded the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1. Vazgen Sarkisian YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) -- Vazgen Sarkisian, the Prime Minister who built his career as a hawkish defender of the nation and its right to the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, was gunned down in the Armenian parliament on Wednesday. He was 40. He served for close to a decade as chairman of the parliamentary defense and police committee, state minister for defense, and defense minister. He began his political career by becoming secretary of the Young Communists' chapter at the Ararat Concrete Factory, the biggest concrete plant in the Caucasus region. He served there until 1986, when joined the editorial board of the Garun (Spring) literary magazine. Two years later, Sarkisian joined the nationalist movement aimed at wresting the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh from the control of the neighboring Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc. LEADSTORIES Story last updated at 10:55 a.m. on Friday, October 29, 1999 Randy Faulkner Athens Randall Kerry Faulkner, 40, of 1121 Cherokee Circle, died October 27, 1999. A native of Clarke County, he was a graduate of Cedar Shoals High School and a member of Corinth Baptist Church. Funeral services will be Saturday, October 30, 1999 at 11:00 AM at Lord and Stephens Chapel, East. Rev. Richard McFall, Russell K. Faulkner, Pat M. Halloran and Kirk T. Atkinson will officiate. Interment will be in Winterville Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Dr. Stephen S. Fennell, Dr. James E. Jackson, Jeff J. Allgood, Greg B. Thaxton, Jimmy S. Summers, and D. Keith Burns. Survivors include his wife, Carol McHugh Faulkner of Athens; Parents, Mr. and Mrs. Toby Hardigree of Watkinsville and Mr. and Mrs. Kerry Faulkner of Hartwell; sons and daughter in law, Shannon L. and Kathryn Faulkner of Winder, Ashley J. Faulkner of Winder, Ross K. Faulkner, Cullen M. Faulkner, and Carter Starr Faulkner, all of Athens; brothers, Russell K. Faulkner of Colbert, Bart Hardigree, and Matt Hardigree, both of Watkinsville; sister, Amy Thompson of Watkinsville; granddaughter, Kathryn Shelby Faulkner of Winder; grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Gus Hardeman of Winterville; nine nieces and nephews. Flowers will be accepted as well as memorials to Corinth Baptist Church Building Fund. The family will receive friends Friday from 7:00 until 9:00 PM at the funeral home and will be at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Toby Hardigree, 143 New High Shoals Road, Watkinsville, GA. Lord & Stephens Funeral Home, East is in charge of arrangements. Athens Daily News/Banner-Herald, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 Lorena H. 'Rena' McRae Marietta Lorena H. ''Rena'' McRae, 88, formerly of Athens, died Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999. Mrs. McRae, a native of Clarke County, Ga., was the daughter of the late Mr. Henry T. and Mattie Yarbrough Huff. She retired from the Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services after many years of service. She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga. and was preceded in death by her son, Thomas M. McRae, and a brother, the late Clarke County Sheriff Tommy Huff. Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday in Oconee Hill Cemetery with the Rev. Harold Huff officiating. Survivors include a son, William R. McRae; two sisters, Edna Denny, Athens, and Ann Brown, Watkinsville; five grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m. today at Bridges Funeral Home, Athens. Athens Daily News/Banner-Herald, Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 send this notice to a friend email the editor Šopyright 1999 Athens Newspapers Inc.