Mabel Graham

Mabel Kate Graham née Yott passed away Friday, August 10, 2018 in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, at the of age 101.  Mrs. Graham was born on Bon Air Mountain on July 6, 1917 to Bessie Brown and Robert Earl Yott, a coal miner.  She was the fifth of eleven children.  She attended school through the eighth grade at DeRossett Elementary.

On January 11, 1936, a promised trip to the movies with Robert Lee Graham turned into a visit to the justice of the peace in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee.  Mr. and Mrs. Graham were married that night, and they spent nearly sixty years as husband and wife.  The Grahams lived in different coal mining camps across Tennessee, including Ravenscroft, Wilder, Fork Mountain, Gobey, and Crossville, but they eventually settled in DeRossett.  The family attended DeRossett Church of Christ, a church that Mr. Graham helped to build.  In 1976, Mrs. Graham retired from the Sparta shirt factory to be a full-time grandmother to her two granddaughters.

Mrs. Graham will be remembered as an excellent cook, a wonderful singer, a talented seamstress, a keen birdwatcher and gardener, a supportive wife, mother, and grandmother, and a devout Christian.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her siblings Robert Earl, Lillian Earline (Hutchings), David, Arthur Jake, William, John, Paul, Mary Frances (Vinson), and Lilla Seraphine Yott.  She is survived by two sons, Richard LeRoy (Katherine) and David Donald (Joan) Graham both of Sparta, two granddaughters Patricia Ann (Ed) Bush of Antioch and Julie Elana (Joey) Brymer of Nashville, and one sister, Bobbie Ruth Wilson of Sparta.

Arrangements:

The family will receive friends Monday, August 13, 2018 from 4:00 PM until 8:00 PM at Thurman Funeral Home.

Funeral Services will be Tuesday August 14, 2018 at 11:00 AM at Thurman Funeral Home Interment to follow at Old Bon Air Cemetery, Officiating Bro. Roy Whited.