Vauda Lee Skinner, 93, of Fitzgerald, Georgia, died Sunday, August 26, 2018, at Legacy Village in Tifton.
Graveside services will be held 4 PM, Tuesday, August 28, 2018, at the Evergreen Cemetery in Fitzgerald, with the Rev. Tom Braziel and the Rev. Robert Couey officiating.
Mrs. Skinner was born at home in Damascus, Arkansas, on September 8, 1924, to the late Edd & Elsie Dixon Farley. She was a graduate of South Side High School in Bee Branch, Arkansas. Her father died when she was 9 years old and so she had to help with the household chores and the care of her younger siblings. She worked at a dry cleaners in Conway, Arkansas from 1940-1942. She married James B. Skinner in 1943 on his first furlough from the Army. During the war, she worked at a bomb production facility as timekeeper in Jacksonville, Arkansas at Camp Robinson. After her children were born, she was a stay-at-home mom but stayed very busy in community and church work.
She and Jim moved from Arkansas to Decatur, Georgia in 1956. Over the next 20 years, they lived in Willingboro, New Jersey, Fairfax, Virginia, and Little Rock, Arkansas. She served for 12 years in churches in northern Virginia as Director of Pre-school programs. She was always active in her local church and served God for many years in all capacities. She was nursery coordinator at Park Hill Baptist Church in Sherwood, Arkansas for over 10 years. She loved to cook, sew (especially quilting) and make crafts as well as gardening. In 2008, she and Jim moved to Fitzgerald to be near her daughter.
She is survived by a son, Larry Don Skinner (Marcia) of Las Cruces, New Mexico; a daughter, Cathey Braziel (Tom) of Fitzgerald; four grandchildren: Jacob Skinner (Christy), Bethany Skinner Herreman (Tyler), Casey Braziel Carroll (John), and Laura Braziel; three great-grandchildren: Bailee Skinner, Willow Skinner, and Josiah Thomas Carroll; and a sister, Laverne Farley Payne of Benton, Arkansas. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband of 71 years, James Bernard “Jim” Skinner in 2015.
The family suggests those desiring to send memorials may send them to Southern Care Hospice, 143 S. Highway 319, Suite 1, Moultrie, Georgia 31768.