Evelyn JoAnne Borders Hooper

Nannie was born in Georgia in 1924 and moved to Blue Mountain with her grandparents John and Mamie Borders and her mother Lucille Cranmer when she was just a child. During the Great Depression, she helped raise her two brothers Ray Cranmer, Jr., and John Cranmer and her sister Barbara Ann Cranmer Strickland while older family members worked. Later, she married her sweetheart Dave Roe Daugherty, who served in the army during World War II, and had two sons Dave Daugherty and Harold Daugherty. They bought a house on Andrew Street to raise their family.

After Barbara Ann's death from leukemia and Dave Roe's in a car accident, she worked on Ft. McClellan to support her sons and eventually remarried. She and husband Paul I. Hooper had a third son Doug Hooper, and she began working at Blue Mountain Industries. She continued to take care of others in that little house on Andrew Street, and her family expanded to include her niece Vicky Strickland Phillips, and three wonderful daughter-in-laws, Carmen Daugherty, Nancy Daugherty, and Mary Chambers Twinn. Grandchildren followed: Brian Daugherty (wife Tammy), Kevin Daugherty, and Lindsay Hooper Ford whom she raised as a daughter (husband Paul). Many a night was spent around the dining room table and many a weekend at the lake where they purchased a piece of land and shared memories with long-time family friends the Browns and the Hollidays.

Nannie retired from Blue Mountain Industries in 1988, but she kept active working small jobs and taking care of little ones; great grandchildren Kyle, Evan, and Dallis Daugherty; Lexie and Landen Daugherty; and Emma Ford and great-great-granddaughter Kennedy Carlise became her blessings. In 2012, her husband of sixty-two years passed away after struggling with Alzheimer's. She lived her remaining years always thinking of her family first, still serving them dinner around her table, and always surrounded by those who loved her in return--including her well-loved puppy Princess.

Visitation for this precious lady will be Saturday, September 19, at Gray-Brown Funeral Home beginning at 10:00 a.m. Services will follow at 11:00 a.m. with the Reverend Randy Postell officiating. Pallbearers will be Paul Ford, Brian Daugherty, Kevin Daugherty, Kyle Daugherty, nephew Jamie Cranmer, and family friend Eric Muth. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Steel Magnolias in Anniston or to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama.