- Date Of Death: January 24, 2017
- State: Georgia
Zellie G. Earnest, 82, of Kingsport, TN, died January 24, 2017 after a brief illness. Born in Ducktown, Tennessee, and raised in McCaysville, Georgia, Zellie graduated from the University of Tennessee with a bachelors degree, and later a masters in Industrial Engineering. He met the love of his life, Patricia Wade, while co-oping during college in Chattanooga. They married in 1959, moving to Kingsport in 1961 after a brief tour in the Army. He worked his entire career for Eastman Chemical Company and spent most of those years in the Training Department where he met and trained a large number of Eastman employees. That fact, combined with his passion for people and his memorable name meant that if he was in East Tennessee, he was never more than a few yards from someone he knew or who knew him.
He and Pat were loving, devoted partners and parents, raising their three children in Kingsport. Zellie was active in the community for his entire life. He was a long-time member and elder of Waverly Road Presbyterian Church. Over more than a decade, he served as Scoutmaster of Troop 255, mentoring dozens of scouts in addition to his two Eagle Scout sons. He was committed to Kingsport and said “yes” to almost every request for him to volunteer. He was particularly proud of Kingsport’s Greenbelt, which he helped to envision and to which he devoted many hours. Over his long, full life he also volunteered time to preserving land along the Appalachian Trail, worked regularly at the food pantry at his church, devoted countless hours to bluebird conservation, worked on multiple building projects for Habitat for Humanity, and more recently campaigned tirelessly for universal and equitable health care coverage for all.
Most of all, he loved people. He never tired of meeting new people and lived for his family, his countless friends and the entirety of humanity who were simply “friends he had yet to meet.” He is preceded in death by his wife of 43 years, Patricia Wade Earnest and his son Kevin Earnest. He is survived by his daughter Lin O’Neill and son-in-law Mike O’Neill of Dalton, Georgia and son Mark Earnest and daughter-in-law Julie Williams Earnest of Denver Colorado as well as 5 grandchildren: Patrick, Andrew, and Matthew O’Neill and Elliot and Olivia Earnest. On the wall of his kitchen hung the words “Oh be swift to love.” He was swift. He lived and loved passionately and will be greatly missed.
