By Staff
April 2, 2005
Funeral for Alma Christine Murphree Anders, 97, of Hartselle was Tuesday, April 5, at 11 a.m. at Peck Funeral Home Chapel with Dr. Ron Wilson, Dr. Jeff Redmond and the Rev. Dixie Voss officiating.
Burial was in Herring Cemetery.
Mrs. Anders died Saturday, April 2, 2005, at Decatur General Hospital following a lengthy illness. She was born Nov. 8, 1907, in Morgan County to Claude Cleveland Murphree and Mary Etta Compton Murphree. The eldest of eight girls, she lived her entire childhood at what is now known as College Street S.E., Decatur. She attended the first 10 years of school at Fairview and the last two years at Decatur High School (Riverside) graduating at the age of 19 with the class of 1927. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband of 57 years, John Forrest Anders; one grandson, James Allen Anders Jr.; one granddaughter, Shirley Jean Eddy; one great grandson, Brandon Sean Crocker; and two sisters, Edith Alene Murphree and Ada Evelyn Murphree Monts. Besides her family, she cared about her church. She was a "Southern Fried" Baptist attending Fairview, New Center, Bethlehem, First Baptist of Hartselle and Lebanon Baptist churches. She also attended Mt. Tabor and McKendree Methodist Churches during the span of her life. She taught Sunday school and training union classes and was active in the choir and WMU.
As a domestic engineer, she loved to cook, can, sew, tat, needlepoint, smock, quilt and crochet, and she did it all very well. She also loved to garden, growing vegetables, green and flowering plants. She was a beautiful woman, blessed with many talents, but most of all she loved her Lord and her family as witnessed by her survivors listed below.
She is survived by three sons, Claude Anders and his wife, Lorene, of Massey, James Allen Anders Sr. of Decatur, and Bobby Eugene Anders and his wife, Dixie, of Le Claire, Iowa; five daughters, Doris Louise Anders Jernigan and her husband, Bill, Marietta Anders Eddy and her husband, Billy, Patricia Joyce Anders Pettus and her husband, Don, all of Hartselle, Rachel Anita Anders Ranson and her husband, Mel, of Montevallo, and Gloria Elizabeth Anders Brown and her husband, Buddy, of Tuscaloosa; five sisters, Mary Francis Murphree Johnson of Bossier City, La., Mabel Elizabeth Murphree Luker of Whittier, Calif., Irma Rachel Murphree Watson and her husband, Bill, of Garden Grove, Calif., Bernice Marie Murphree Monk and her husband, James, of Apple Valley, Calif., and Carolyn Elaine Murphree Thomas of Coarsegold, Calif.; 22 grandchildren ; 34 great grandchildren; and five great-great grandchildren.
Pallbearers were grandsons, Claude Michael Anders, Kenneth Ray Anders, Steven Wayne Anders, Charles Edward Anders, Rex Melburn Ranson, Curtis Lee Ranson, Patrick Lynn Pettus, David Wayne Anders, Danny Paul Anders and Sean Evan Anders.
Memorials may be made to the Decatur General Hospital Foundation, P.O. Box 2239, Decatur, AL 35609-2239.