Mrs. Turner was born February 21, 1925 at Wesley Memorial (now Emory) Hospital in Atlanta, GA. She was the third of four daughters of the Rev. Henry Hart Jones and Annie Dickey Jones, and the granddaughter of Emory President and Methodist Bishop James E. Dickey. Following her father’s clergy position in the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Church, she grew up in parsonages in Marietta, West Point, Atlanta (Park Street, St. Paul, and Grace churches), Augusta, and Oxford. She attended Girls High School, Atlanta, and graduated from the Emory-at-Oxford Academy before attending Wesleyan College in Macon, from which she graduated in 1946. She began a productive 31 year career as a school teacher at Ft. Hill Elementary in Dalton, West Griffin School in Griffin, and the Ponce de Leon and Westchester Schools of the Decatur City System. She taught second grade 21 years at Westchester, retiring in 1978. For 23 years following her college graduation, she shared her parents’ home, spending holidays and beach vacations with her sisters’ families. In each of these extended families she was a beloved and integral member. Loving and unfailingly self-effacing, nonetheless she regaled her nieces and nephews with photos and stories from her several trips to Europe and the Middle East through the 1960s. In 1969, she married Harry Lee Turner of Carlton, GA. They were married 22 years when he preceded her in death in 1992. She remained active in Emory’s Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church until moving to LaGrange in 2000 to be near her sister. She was active in LaGrange First United Methodist Church until her health no longer permitted. In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by sisters, Jessie Munro Jones Whittemore and Ann Elizabeth Jones Rutland, both of Dalton, GA, and an infant brother.
Survivors include her sister, Claire Dickey Jones Jackson Plymel of LaGrange, GA; sister-in-law, Betty Turner Lanier of Crawford; and nine nieces and nephews, Margaret Rutland Dyer of Roswell, Robert E. Rutland, Jr. of Williamsville, N.Y., Laura Rutland of Erie, PA, Ann Whittemore Price of Friendswood, TX, John Whittemore, Jr. of Decatur, Elizabeth Whittemore Carroll of Clarkston, Thomas H. Jackson, Jr. of Watkinsville, Henry Hart Jackson of LaGrange, and James Dickey Jackson of Grand Rapids, MI; and numerous great and great great nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Life service will be at 10:00 A.M. Tuesday, April 3, 2018 in the Chapel of First United Methodist Church of LaGrange with Rev. Doug Ivey and Rev. Blake Trent officiating. The gathering of family and friends will be on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at the Chapel of First United Methodist Church from 9:30 A.M. until 10:00 A.M. Burial will follow at 3:30 P.M. Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at Glade Baptist Church Cemetery in Oglethorpe County, with Rev. Doug Ivey officiating.
Those wishing to share a condolence or remembrance with the family may do so by visiting www.shlagrange.com.
Arrangements are by Striffler-Hamby Mortuary, 1010 Mooty Bridge Road, LaGrange, GA 30240 (706) 884-8636
