Geraldine Benford Arthur, 96, of Waycross, died Thursday, March 13, 2014, at Satilla Care Center in Waycross.
Funeral services will be held 3 PM, Monday, March 17, 2014, at The Paulk Funeral Home Chapel in Fitzgerald, with the Rev. Robert Woodruff officiating. Interment will follow in the Evergreen Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 1:30 PM until the service hour at the funeral home.
Mrs. Arthur was born February 3, 1918 in Franklin County, Georgia, to the late Artenius A. and Annie Kilgore Benford. She was one of twelve children and grew up in Alabama. In the 1930’s, she and her husband, the late William Lloyd Arthur, moved to Fitzgerald. She worked in the cafeteria at Fitzgerald High School and Ben Hill County Hospital and was a homemaker. In 1963, they moved to Brunswick, Georgia. Following her husband’s death, she moved to Waycross where she lived for the past 30 years. Mrs. Arthur will be remembered for her love of church, family and friends; and her quiet, kind and gentle ways to all she knew and met in her lifetime. She was a member of Hebardville Baptist Church in Waycross.
She is survived by two daughters: Vernell A. and James Ellis of Waycross and Gayle Lupton of Bayboro, North Carolina; seven grandchildren: Byron & Arlene Strickland, Variee & Mark VanLaningham, Jeff & Norma Ellis, Renea & Harold Hickman, Edwin & Caroline Lowie, Jessica & John Powell and Dennis Lupton; eleven great-grandchildren; four brothers: Loyd & Mildred Benford of Fitzgerald, Auburn & Genier Ruth Benford, J. L. & Martha Benford and Jerry & Betty Benford, all of Haleyville, Alabama; three sisters-in-law: Mozelle Benford, Barbara Benford and Ophelia Danner; as well as numerous nieces and nephews. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband: William Lloyd Arthur; a daughter: Judy A. Howell; two sons-in-law: Carroll Howell and Denny Wayne Lupton; three sisters and four brothers.