Martha Anne Kimbrough

Martha was born in Corinth to the late J. Edd and Lula Eaves Young. She was the baby of their four children. Martha excelled in school, and when she became a teenager, her favorite pastime was the Saturday afternoon matinees at the Coliseum Theatre with friends. She worked during the week helping her father in his repair shop to earn two nickels, one for a Coca-Cola and the other for popcorn to enjoy with the movies.

By the time Martha got to high school, she was a straight A student. She graduated from Corinth High School in 1953 with honors including the DAR Citizenship Award.

Her next stop was Northeast Mississippi Junior College where she graduated in May of 1955 with honors and a degree in secretarial science, collecting an award for her perfect scores in Shorthand Writing Science.

Just as she was to matriculate to Mississippi State College for Women, she met the man of her dreams and married Billy C. Kimbrough in September of 1955. In 1957, they welcomed their bundle of joy they named Kim.

Martha began her professional career in 1955 with Erst Long, Sr, owner of Alcorn Wholesale, as his Executive Secretary. Later she worked for his son Erst, Jr in the same capacity and held other office positions during her twenty-two years with Alcorn Wholesale (now Long Wholesale). When she retired, she did not plan to be bored but she was missing something. So, she returned to work in 1979 as an Executive Secretary for Robert Liddon and Liddon McPeters at Security Bank. After twenty years and four bank mergers, she retired again, this time from Regions Bank.

The Kimbroughs were always vacationing whenever they could. Road trips were a must because Martha was insistent they be educational for Kim. Summer trips from the time Kim was five until she graduated from high school included Niagara Falls, Silver Springs and the Horse Capital of the World, Pike’s Peak, The Grand Canyon, The Space Needle, Yellowstone, Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks, The Badlands and Mount Rushmore, Paul Revere’s House, Kennedy Space Center, The Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, and more than 15 museums along the way.

After her second retirement, Martha traveled some with Kim through her job to San Francisco, Portland, Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Chicago, and Atlanta, among other cities. Martha was a huge major league baseball fan, so they always caught a game when one was being played, against the Atlanta Braves, her favorite team, if possible.

When she was home and Bill was playing golf or working in his vegetable garden, Martha got crafty. She cross-stitched and needlepointed and framed her art to give as gifts. She cooked and canned, entering her wares in county fairs around north Mississippi and she won numerous blue ribbons. Pool Room Slaw and Yellow Squash Relish were two of her biggest winners along with her double chocolate cake and lemon meringue pie. Martha went back to writing poetry and short stories and placed regularly in area writing contests. One year she came in second in a Mississippi state writing contest for a short story about a woman who stomped turnips for a living.

Martha was counted on at church potlucks for her casseroles, breads, and desserts. When Saturday nights rolled around, you could find Martha making her famous hushpuppies when their crew of Edmond and Lucille King, Rheuben and Glenda McGee, Orlander and Rotha Hardwick, Wallace and Reba Benjamin, Bobby and Margie Franks, Garland and Angelita Robinson, and others gathered around the Kimbrough table for a fish fry dinner then several hands of Rook or Dominoes while drinking coffee and eating a piece of her pecan pie.

Martha loved life with Bill and her friends and travels with Kim but there was one thing she loved more - being a faithful member of the Lord’s church. Nothing mattered to her as much as living a Christian life.

She and Bill worshiped with the Saints at East Corinth church of Christ for almost forty years then they worshipped at Northside church of Christ for over ten years before Bill died. Martha continued worshipping God at Northside until failing health a year ago made her home bound.

Martha told everyone she could what a devoted daughter she had in Kim until almost her last second on earth.

Martha was preceded in death by her father and mother, James Edgar and Lula Eaves Young; her husband Billy C. Kimbrough; her father-in-law and mother-in-law, J. Shelby and Gladys Johnson Kimbrough; two brothers, Raymond J. Young and Jac T. Young; one sister, Adrienne Young Box; three brothers-in-law, M. Reid Box, Douglas Kimbrough, and Donald Kimbrough; two sisters-in-law, Dorothy Pennington and Marie Matthews, one nephew-in-law, Donnie Mathis; and the four-legged love of her life, her Chihuahua, Axel Jack.

Survivors include one daughter, L. Kim Kimbrough, Corinth; two nieces, Diane Box Mathis, Corinth and Shelaine Pennington, Baldwyn; two nephews Buddie Don Matthews (Anita) Tuscumbia, AL, and Shane Pennington (Vicky) Baldwyn; five great nieces, Stephanie R. Mathis, Corinth, Lucie M. Johnson (Ben) Memphis, TN, Chanda M. Posey, Tuscumbia, AL, Kenzie Roberts (Wesley)and Abby Pennington, Baldwyn; three great nephews, Buddie Don Matthews II (Paisley) Florence, AL, Kyle Lovette (Samantha) Booneville, and Chantz Lane Pennington, Baldwyn; two great-great nieces Lyndon Matthews, St. Louis, MO, and Waverly Roberts, Baldwyn; four great-great nephews, Canaan Matthews, St Louis, MO, Parker Posey and Rece Posey, Tuscumbia, AL, and Briggs Roberts, Baldwyn.

Martha also leaves a host of cousins from her maiden Young family name in Alcorn and Tippah Counties.

Respects and visits with the family may be made at Memorial Funeral Home in downtown Corinth on Friday, September 11, from 4 pm to 6 pm. Funeral service will be held for Martha at Memorial Funeral Home on Saturday September 12 at 10 am with interment following at City Cemetery in Corinth.

Service speakers will be Lennis Nowell, minister of the church of Christ that meets at Northside in Corinth, and Garland Robinson, minister of the Leoni church of Christ that meets in Woodbury, TN.

Pallbearers will be Randy Long, Johnny Purvis, Shane Pennington Don Matthews II, Kyle Lovette, Parker Posey, Tim Ellis, and Tim Hardwick.

Honorary Pallbearers will be Matt Langston, Don Matthews, Canaan Matthews, and Rece Posey.

Honorary flower bearers will be Kim’s high school friends who referred to Martha as Momma Too, Becky Belue Brown, Caroline Keller Choate, Julie Harris Bingham, Cheri Whitehurst Miller, Susan Johnson Ross; and Martha’s Lunch Bunch friends who were her coworkers at Regions Bank: Reta Baswell, Margaret Brock, Brenda Childs, Janice Elam, Adelean Emerson, Lucy Ferguson, Linda Garrett, Peggy Gurley, Joyce Hardwick, Sheila Hopkins, Peggy Howell, Loretta Newton, Pat Nelson, Mollie Nunley, Patricia Nachbar, Caroline Pettie, Diane Phillips, Methel Sexton, and Paula Smith.

Even though she loved flowers, Martha requested donations be made in lieu of flowers to her favorite charities, Pinevale Children’s Home in Corinth or GBN - the Gospel Broadcasting Network in Olive Branch, MS.

Arrangements are under the care of Memorial Funeral Home.

Online condolences can be left at www.MemorialCorinth.com for the Kimbrough family.