Melissa White Stamps

Melissa White Stamps, 90, died peacefully at home on Monday, April 13, 2020, after a sustained illness. She was born Melissa Lucille White on February 4, 1930, in Haywood County, Tennessee to Granville Auston White and Helen Tinsley White. She graduated from Haywood High School in 1948, and attended the Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing, where she was a member of the Class of 1951. She married Joseph Edward Stamps in 1952, and the couple settled in Knoxville, where she served as both a hospital and private duty nurse before going to work for TVA Medical Services as an RN and later an Administrator. She retired from TVA in 1992 after thirty plus years.

She was a member of First Baptist Church of Concord for 60 years, where she served as a Sunday School teacher and was a mentor to many. She also served for several years as the camp nurse at Camp Ba-Yo-Ca, run by the Knox County Baptist Association.

She was a proud member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Knoxville 89 Chapter, and a member of the Real Granddaughters Club within that organization.

Mrs. Stamps was an avid gardener of both flowers and vegetables, and maintained her gardens until injury forced her to stop. She also canned her own produce. Her apple butter and squash relish were legendary among her circle of friends.

She was a huge basketball fan, and played herself while in nursing training and again in her later years in the senior basketball league, where her team played in the Senior Olympics. She loved the Lady Vols, and held season tickets for several years until her health no longer allowed her to attend the games. Even then, she almost never missed a game on television, radio, or tablet, right up until her last days.

She is predeceased by her parents and two brothers, Henry Edgar White and Ernest Auston White, and her husband of 31 years, Ed, who passed in 1983.

She is survived by her sister, Mable Kleber, of Louisville, KY, her three children, Gail Stamps Brosk of Columbia, MD, Kathy Stamps Patty of Knoxville, and David Edward Stamps of Mount Pleasant, SC. She leaves 8 grandchildren: Austin Brosk of Charlottesville, VA, Melissa Brosk McIntire, of Chestertown, MD, Stephanie Brosk Johnson of Stanardsville, VA, Candice Patty Smith, Dawson Edward Patty, and Hannah Patty Hovis, all of Knoxville, and Brianna Nicole Stamps and Daniel Edward Stamps of Mt. Pleasant, SC. She also leaves 7 great-grandchildren, aged 6 weeks to 11 years.

In light of the ongoing health crisis, burial services will be private. Interment will be in Highland Memorial Cemetery at the side of her husband. A Celebration of Life service will be held in the Chapel at First Baptist Church of Concord at a later date once the current crisis has passed.

Mrs. Stamps had requested that those who wish to make donations in lieu of flowers make them to Camp Ba-Yo-Ca at www.campbayoca.com, or 2320 Happy Hollow Rd., Sevierville, TN, 37862.