Carolyn Whitaker Tankersley, 73, of Ocilla, Georgia, died Saturday, January 15, 2005 at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Georgia.
Funeral services will be held at 4 PM Monday, January 17, 2005, at Ocilla Baptist Church with the Rev. Gerald Thomas officiating. Interment will be in the Ocilla Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the funeral home in Ocilla from 7:00 until 9:00 Sunday evening.
Mrs. Tankersley was born April 9, 1931, in Laurens County, Georgia, to the late James Lee Whitaker and Janie Ard White Whitaker. She graduated from Dudley High School in 1947 and was the Valedictorian of her class. Mrs. Tankersley attended GSCW and Middle Georgia College and graduated from Georgia Teachers College in Statesboro, Georgia. She was a former elementary school teacher in Ben Hill and Irwin Counties. Mrs. Tankersley began the Tankersley Kindergarten where she privately taught for a number of years. She was a member of Ocilla Baptist Church where she taught the Martha Sunday School class and was a member of the WMU. She was a member of the Sewing Club.
Her greatest joy in life was meeting the needs of her family and serving her Lord. A dedicated wife, mother and grandmother, Mrs. Tankersley is survived by her husband of 51 years: Cleon C. Tankersley, Ocilla; son: Robert Clifford “Cliff” Tankersley, and his wife, Nanci, Ocilla; daughter: Jane Tankersley Willis, and her husband, Glen, Tifton, Georgia; 5 grandchildren: Clifford Drew Tankersley, Erin Elizabeth Tankersley, Christopher Kurt Willis, Anna Carolyn Willis and Robert Glen Willis; brother: James White Whitaker, Dublin, Georgia; two sisters: Mary Whitaker Townsend, Dublin, Georgia and Janet Whitaker King, Port St. Joe, Florida; and numerous nieces and nephews.
The family suggests those desiring to send memorials may send them to Ocilla Baptist Church, the Ocilla Cemetery Trust Fund or the Martha Sunday School Class.