Bessie Jo Parrish Funderburke, 73, of Tifton died Tuesday, April 21, 2009, at Archbold Medical Center in Thomasville, Georgia. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, 2009, in the Chapel of Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals. Rev. Ronnie Vice will officiate with burial to follow in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Mark Sutton, Virgil Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Morris Sapp, Glenn Hardy and Ruben Nelson will serve as pallbearers. The family will receive friends on Friday, April 24, 2009, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals.
Mrs. Funderburke was born on April 26, 1935 in Wheeler County and was the daughter of Herman Franklin Parrish and Mamie Lee Maddox Parrish, both deceased.
She graduated in 1955 from Irwin County High School. After high school, she was employed with G. C. Murphy and Fitzgerald Underwear. She also worked in the lunchroom at TCDI. She was retired from Tift County Junior High School, where she was a dietician and assistant manager of the lunchroom. She was of the Baptist faith. She was an active band parent from 1980-1985 and chaperoned band trips and worked the concession stand at Tift County Blue Devil football games during that time. During her residence at Tift Health Care, for the past five years, she was active in church, exercise, Bingo and other group activities. She was an avid Tift County Blue Devil and University of Georgia Bulldog fan and faithfully watched the Mark Richt Show each Sunday after church. She attended UGA home games in her younger years with her husband, Billy, and friends. She was an excellent cook and had a special, unduplicated divinity recipe. In addition to family, she was “Gandma” to her four beloved cats.
Mrs. Funderburke is survived by her husband, Billy Funderburke of Tifton, who she married in 1956; one daughter, Joy Funderburke of Tifton; one brother, Robert F. Parrish of Hilliard, Florida; one sister, Claudette Bishop of Sylva, North Carolina; and special family friends and neighbors of over 40 years, Glenn and Christine Hardy of Tifton.