Thelma C. Dee, age 94, went home to be with the Lord on Tuesday, July 9, 2013 at Baptist Memorial Hospital " Golden Triangle. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Gunter & Peel Funeral Home. Services will be Friday, July 12, 2013 at 11:00 AM at First United Methodist Church with Reverends Tony Proctor and Anne Russell Bradley officiating. Burial will follow in Friendship Cemetery. Visitation will be held at the church beginning at 10:00 AM. Mrs. Dee was born February 5, 1919 in Una, MS to the late William Jasper and Rose Ella Autrey Cantrell. She graduated from the Houston Hospital Nursing Program in 1940 and then moved to Columbus to begin her long-time service as a nurse at Columbus Hospital. In 1952 she married Benjamin H. Dee. Mrs. Dee was well known throughout the community for her work as a nurse at Columbus Hospital, a career that spanned over forty years. As a testimony to her love of nursing and serving others, she received an award in 1991 for Outstanding Service to the Hospital, as evidenced by a plaque and her picture in a place of honor at Baptist Memorial Hospital. Over the years, she served as a teacher and mentor to many new nurses who began their nursing careers at Columbus Hospital and later Baptist Memorial Hospital. She was a long-time member of First United Methodist Church and the Stuckenschneider Sunday School Class. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother William Green Cantrell and her sisters Nina Porter, Ella Louise Ruff and Mary Elizabeth Johnston and her husband Ben Dee. Mrs. Dee is survived by her daughter Kathy Dee and husband William Joseph (Bo) Whalen, Jr. of Montevallo, AL, her brother Guinn Cantrell of Greenwood, MS, her sister Earlene Able of Monet, AR and her sister-in-law Maude D.Yow of St. Petersburg, FL and many nieces and nephews. Active pallbearers will be Jim Evans, Hal Bullock, Mark Bean, Dow Ford, Tommy Hunt and Carter Hutchins. Honorary pallbearers will be the nurses, staff and residents of Trinity Place Retirement Community, and all members of the Stuckenschneider Sunday School Class. Memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 32, Columbus, MS 39703.
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