Jennie Snyder Farmer

Jennie Adcock Shelton Snyder-Farmer peacefully departed on Sunday, February 18, 2024, at the University of Tennessee Medical Center Neuro Critical Care Center after a catastrophic brain stem bleed that occurred on the afternoon of Monday, February 12. Jennie was living a vigorous and fulfilling life. She was 84 years old.

Jennie was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on February 26, 1939, to Josephine Rodgers Adcock and Hugh Woodward Shelton, Sr. and lived some of her early years inside the secret city of Oak Ridge where Jennie participated in Brownies-Girl Scouting and learned to swim in the Oak Ridge Municipal Outdoor Swimming Pool built in 1944 by the Manhattan Project. Jennie graduated from Young High School in 1957 where she was an academic achiever and leader of service activities, president of the Penguin Club, cheerleader, and swimmer. Jennie attended the University of Tennessee where she was a member and leader of the Alpha Delta Pi Sorority.

Jennie knew her first husband from their early-teen years in south Knoxville and their days at Young. Miraculously, Jennie accepted Alan Eugene Snyder’s by-letter marriage proposal and engagement ring sent from Moron Air Force Base, Spain. The happy couple were married in Knoxville on June 30, 1960. Jennie moved to Spain with her husband where she continued her life of adventure: now as an Air Force wife! The entire USAF reconnaissance enterprise, Tactical Air Command (TAC), and Strategic Air Command (SAC) all owe Jennie Snyder a filing cabinet brimming with citations and medals.

Jennie made homes, raised three sons, lead wives’ clubs, mastered Ikebana, and blue-ribboned painting competitions around the globe: San Antonio, Texas; Homestead, Florida; Rome, New York; Okinawa, Japan; Oahu, Hawaii; Montgomery, Alabama; Riverside, California; Tehran, Iran; Warner-Robins, Georgia; Parkville, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska - just naming a few of the 20-plus moves and homes established by Jennie before returning to Tennessee in 1980. Always a devoted family woman, Jennie nurtured everyone in her orbit, caring for her husband as he battled melanoma and was stolen away from her still too young a man on July 27, 1997. Jennie was the very best thing to ever happen to Lt. Col Alan E. Snyder, USAF.

Donald Edgar Farmer was the lucky lad who became Jennie’s second husband. Jennie was searching for a new home and found a handsome realtor to help her. Don was an Oak Ridge National Labs rigger and union ironworker most of his career, then a fearless and cunning bail bondsman, and finally a realtor. Their chance encounter grew into a close friendship, love, and marriage. Jennie and Don were married on May 28, 2006, where Jennie’s family grew to include the daughters she always wanted - beloved stepdaughters Gwendolyn Dawn Farmer Reagan and the late Laura Farmer Lynn (William Richard) of Knoxville. Don was stolen from Jennie’s embrace when he passed on November 3, 2017.

Jennie is survived by her sons, Alan Woodward Snyder of La Jolla, CA; Stephen Eugene Snyder of Knoxville; Scott Windom Snyder (Diana) of Chesapeake, VA; and stepdaughter Gwendolyn Dawn Farmer Reagan (William Randall) of Knoxville; as well as nine grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren with more on the way!

On Saturday, February 24 the family will receive friends from 11:00 A.M to 1:00 P.M at Berry Funeral Home, 3704 Chapman Highway, Knoxville, TN 37920. Pastor Josh Coffelt of Glenwood Baptist Church will conduct a brief remembrance service at 1:00 P.M. Jennie will be interred following the remembrance at Mount Olive Cemetery, 2403 Berry Rd, Knoxville, TN 37920.

In lieu of flowers, her family invites those wishing to make a memorial remembrance to consider Glenwood Baptist Church.