Althea B. Murphy

Published 11:07 am Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Althea B. Murphy, 73, died Sunday, April 6, 2014, at Central Mississippi Medical Center.

Mrs. Murphy was born Dec. 5, 1940, the daughter of the late Benjamin Lafayette Barrett and Elise Carol Bennett. She received her high school education from Carr Central High School, class of 1958, Go Greenies!

Althea was an active member of the Hawkins United Methodist Church family and the Becomers Sunday school class. She headed the meals on wheels program at Hawkins UMC for over 16 years.

If you knew her, you knew that she not only participated in groups she was involved with, but she had to head up those groups.

She had been president of various PTA groups, the first head of the spousal support group for the 412th Theater Engineer Command and chairperson for the Carr Central Class of 1958 reunion committee for well over 50 years.

Over the past few years, she had spent her time enjoying the Steel Magnolias, her Thursday Bible study, and during football season you could find her spending time with her tailgate family at Southern Miss, SMTT!

Althea was also a talented seamstress and poet. She spent many hours in her front “sewing room” creating blankets for new babies, poems for those she cared about, and cards for every occasion.

She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Newell R. Murphy Jr. She is also survived by her children, Kitty Bridges of Southaven, Deb Forbes of Tempe, Ariz., Jody Murphy of Panama City Beach, Fla., Rogers “Doodle” Murphy (Rachel) of Brandon, Carr Murphy Brown (James) of Brandon; and special children, Bobby Hughes of Griffin, Ga., Mark George of Greenville, and Brett Holloway of Vickaburg.

Surviving grandchildren include Nick Bridges, Andi Clark, Virginia Brown, Amy Bridges, Mason Brown and Barrett Brown. Surviving special grandchildren are Hawkins Holloway and Sarah Beth Holloway.

In addition to Althea’s parents, she was preceded in death by her siblings, John Carroll, Alice Faye, Frances, Ben Jr., and Billy; son Paul “Nunnally,” Richard, Lawrence, Ronald J., Gerald and Gaines; and teo grandchildren, Meg Hughes and Ben Leonard.

Visitation will be today from 5 to 7 p.m., and Thursday, April 10, 2014, from 10 a.m. to noon at Hawkins United Methodist Church with services at noon at the church with the Revs. Susannah Carr, Rob Gill and Mitchell Hedgepeth officiating. Burial will follow immediately after the service at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to Hawkins United Methodist Church Abundant Life Center Fund.

Active pallbearers will be Jody Murphy, Rogers Murphy, Brett Holloway, Nick Bridges, Kit Barrett, Barry Barrett, Mark Doiron and Rusty Fuller. Honorary pallbearers are Dr. Bill Pierce III and the Becomers Sunday school class of Hawkins, UMC.