Elise Shepherd Feimster Fay, the widow of James Lester Fay, died peacefully in Columbus, Georgia, on Sunday September 17, 2023, after a brief illness. She was 90 years of age. Elise, the daughter and only child of Early Andrew Feimster and the former Pauline Shepherd Johnson, was born in Columbus on October 18, 1932. After graduating from Wynnton Elementary School and Columbus High School in Columbus, as well as St. Mary’s Junior College in Raleigh, North Carolina, she attended the University of Georgia, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and became a lasting fan of bulldog football. After receiving her B.S. degree in education from the University of Georgia in 1953, Elise returned to Columbus, where she met and married Jim Fay in 1956. Her beloved husband died in 2018 after they had celebrated almost 62 years together.
Elise was active in the Junior League of Columbus and the Columbus Town Committee of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia. She was a lifelong member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, where eight generations of her family have worshipped, serving for ten years on the Altar Guild and for many years as Treasurer of the Lucy Shepherd Guild, named for her great grandmother.
Survivors include three children: Clifton Cartwright Fay and his wife Nancy of Columbus, Lucy Fay Knight and her husband Seth of Columbus, and James Lester Fay, Jr., and his fiancée Cordelia Longstreth Fort of Sanibel Island, Florida; nine grandchildren: Dr. Clifton Cartwright Fay, Jr., and his wife Laura of Albany, Georgia, Leland Park Fay and his wife Marie of Roswell, Georgia, Martha Banks Fay Wingfield and her husband John of Athens, Georgia, Sarah Shepherd Knight of Columbus, Frances Elise Knight Bussey and her husband John of Jackson, Mississippi, Seth Leldon Knight, IV, and his wife Catharine of Charlotte, North Carolina, Elise McGehee Fay and her fiancée, Conner Clemmer, of Charlotte, Porter DeLaunay Fay Elliott and her husband Michael of Nashville, Tennessee, and Hannah Alston Fay of Charlotte; and eight great grandchildren: Annabelle Godwin Fay, Lucile Shepherd Fay, and Clifton Cartwright Fay, III, of Albany; Rose Elizabeth Fay of Roswell; John Wycliffe Bussey, III, and James Banks Bussey of Jackson; and Seth Thomas Knight and Lucy Robinson Knight of Charlotte.
In addition to her husband, Elise was predeceased by her daughter-in-law, Wesley Harrell Fay. Two special cousins, the Hon. Andrew Prather, II, and Wynne Prather Stevenson, both of Columbus,also survive.
Burial services will be held graveside in Linwood Cemetery, Columbus, on Friday, September 22, 2023, at 11 a.m., the Rev. Timothy Graham of Trinity Episcopal Church officiating. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to Trinity Episcopal Church or Columbus Hospice.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.shcolumbus.com for the Fay family.
