Dr. Maree M. Blackwell

July 5, 1920 - Nov. 6, 2015 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15 King James Bible This Great Commission was truly the Life Mission of Maree Elizabeth Macon Blackwell who was born, in Davidson County, Tennessee, to Frances Elizabeth Burkhalter and Earley Cleveland Macon. She lived most of her 95 years in the Birmingham area where she graduated from Shades Valley High School and began attending Athens College at the age of fifteen. It was in Athens where she met and married John Madison "J.M." Blackwell on Dec 20, 1936. Maree Elizabeth served as a city missionary for the Birmingham Presbytery. She served in Sunday Schools, Bible Schools and afternoon bible programs all over the Birmingham area and in Fairview, TN. She helped to start Bryan Memorial Church as an outreach of Third Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. When she was on vacation in Panama City, FL, she would find a church to attend there. She would speak to anyone she met about the Good News of Jesus Christ, who came to die for our sins so that we could live with Him forever in Heaven! Maree went back to college when she was almost forty years old, completed her first degree at Samford University in 1961 and went on to complete her PhD in record time at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL. During that time she was also head of the English department and librarian at Calera High School. In 1966 she went to UAB where she directed the student teaching program in Secondary Education for ten years and was also Graduate Studies Instructor at Miles College. She went to Cali, Colombia, and was instrumental in starting a college there. One sabbatical year, she lived and taught at Hong Kong Bible College in China. She was always generous with her donations of time, money, home and any support needed for her missionary friends and the more than forty foreign exchange students who she sponsored. Her accomplishments are too numerous to count, but they were all for the glory of her Lord and Savior! Maree was preceded in death by her brother, Rudolph Macon, who was killed in WWII, her parents and her husband, her adopted son, William "Billy" Blackwell, her sister, Alyne Gray, and brother, Earley Macon, Jr. She is survived by two brothers, Glen (Jane) Macon of Texas and John Charles (Marlen) Macon of Pennsylvania, her grandchildren, Marlon (Ati) Blackwell of Arkansas, Marian Blackwell Brasher of Birmingham, Cindy (Mike) Farley, Mark (Dedra) Blackwell, Judy (Robert) Tibbs and daughter-in-law, Othello Blackwell Farley, all of Oklahoma, nine grandchildren, her nieces and nephews who were her surrogate children and countless friends all around the world! Our sadness at her passing, is greatly overshadowed by our faith that she is now walking without pain on heaven's streets of gold! Praise the Lord for allowing us to be part of the life of our precious Sister, Aunt Maree, Grandmother, and family Matriarch, Maree Elizabeth Macon Blackwell. Viewing will begin on Tuesday, November 10, 2015 at 11 am with service following at noon at New Hope Cumberland Presbyterian Church and burial in Bryan Memorial Presbyterian Church Cemetery.