Anna Merle Hager McKinnon

Merle McKinnon, age 95, passed away on November 10, 2017 at South Haven Health and Rehabilitation in Vestavia. She was born Anna Merle Hager in 1922 in Bessemer City, North Carolina, the seventh of ten children of Robert Lee Hager and Ferrie Froneberger Hager. Her large family struggled to make a living farming a small plot of land during the Great Depression and she grew up in a four room house without indoor plumbing or electricity. Due to the kindness of her uncle, she entered nursing school at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte and graduated as a registered nurse in 1943. She was commissioned an officer in the US Navy Nursing Corps in 1945. After serving as a nurse at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia for two years, she returned to Charlotte where she met and married Bennett Kirkman McKinnon in 1948.

Merle McKinnon devoted the years between 1948 and 1970 to being a loyal wife and loving mother. She had three daughters and immersed herself in activities such as home room mother, Girl Scout leader, member of various garden clubs and bridge clubs. In 1970, she returned to the profession she had loved by resuming her career as a nurse at the Jefferson County Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Homewood. She stayed on at that facility when it became the Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital. She became a staff nurse in the detoxification unit at Brookwood Recovery Centers, and later spent many years as a staff nurse at Lloyd Nolan Hospital.

Merle McKinnon was a devoted member of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Vestavia Hills. Everyone who knew her was touched by her kindness, her sense of humor, her biting wit and her love of her family. She lived a most interesting life during a most interesting time, and she left behind a positive imprint on the many people who loved her.

Merle McKinnon leaves three daughters, Sharon Bruns of Plymouth, Massachusetts; Ellen McKinnon of Asheville, North Carolina; and Lisa McKinnon of Hoover, Alabama; two grandchildren; Justin Unkel of Statesboro, Georgia and Anastasia Bruns of Medway, Massachusetts, and one great grand-son, Jackson Bruns-Salani, of Medway, Massachusetts.

A service in honor of the life of Anna Merle Hager McKinnon will be held at Southminster Presbyterian Church, time and date to be determined. Burial will be private in Bessemer City, North Carolina.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Southminster Presbyterian Church.