- Date Of Birth: June 4, 1921
- Date Of Death: July 6, 2022
- State: Alabama
Lucy Agnes Jones Kephart, 101, died July 5,2022 in Bartlett TN, after a brief illness.
She was predeceased by her husband of 56 years, Andrew J. Kephart, Sr., her son Dwight, her grandson William Andrew Dunbar, two brothers, Joe and Albert, and three sisters, Nancy Ann, Maxine and Eleanor. She is survived by a daughter and son-in-law, Joan and Wayne Dunbar of Memphis and son and daughter-in-law Jack and Betsy Kephart of Huntsville. She is also survived by four grandsons, Chris and Brad Dunbar, Jamey Kephart and Richard Kephart, and six great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Kephart was born June 4,1921 in Tippah County Mississippi to Max Jones and Jesse Burgess and Andy married May 1,1943. They and their three children moved from Jacksonville NAS to a new job at Redstone Arsenal in 1952.
Because of her experience managing school lunchrooms in other cities, she became the first lunchroom manager of Lee High School in 1958. She stayed there for 29 years, finally retiring in in 1987. Successfully managing a lunchroom at a large high school is hard work, but she cared about the job, the people she worked with and her students. One of her favorite tasks was feeding the football teams before their Friday night games which she and Andy faithfully attended. The football team and their coaches showed their appreciation on several occasions with awards of recognition at the year end football banquets. Even after she retired she and Andy went to as many games as they could.
She, and a friend who was an Alabama state legislator, worked faithfully in Montgomery to make the working life of lunchroom employees more like that of other staff and faculty: providing lunchroom employees with health insurance and retirement benefits and salaries paid year round.
After retirement, her main interest, by far, was being with grandchildren in Memphis, Mulberry, Tennessee and Huntsville. It made for a lot of driving, but they were dedicated. And were rewarded by being loved.
She never stopped caring about her country and the world. She and Andy read their daily papers front to back and watched the evening news faithfully. They took many road trips just to see new places and new people. She and Andy had disappointments and tragedies, dealt with them quietly, then moved on to whatever came next. They attended Lincoln Church of Christ for many years. After Andy died she attended Twickenham Church of Christ.
She spent her last ten years at a special care home near her daughter in Tennessee. There she was blessed with kind caregivers and one special person whose light shined so bright that she must be mentioned and given the appreciation of a grateful family. Quita T. cared for her precious Ms. Lucy the entire time she lived there. They grew to love each other. Quita grieves as the family does.
