Mary Lee Childs

Mary Lee Childs
Mary Lee Childs of Thomasville, Georgia, died Thursday afternoon at the age of eighty-seven. Her funeral will be held at 2:00 o?clock, on Saturday, December 29th, in the chapel of the First Baptist Church of Thomasville, 210 North Broad Street. Visitation will occur on Friday, December 28th, from 6:00 to 8:00 o?clock, at Allen and Allen Funeral Home in Thomasville. Mrs. Childs was born in Jeff Davis County, Georgia, on September 18, 1920, to the Reverend and Mrs. W. R. Beall. She attended Brewton Parker Junior College, graduated from the University of Georgia, and obtained several advanced degrees, including masters in education and business administration. During the early years of World War II, she worked for the United States Navy in Brunswick, Georgia, before her marriage to Wallace Clifton Childs in 1944. They lived in the south Georgia communities of Irwinville, Blackshear, Alma , Glennville and Pearson prior to moving to Thomasville. For over thirty-five years, Mrs. Childs taught in public schools and junior colleges, including Thomas County High School, Vashti, and Thomas College. Throughout her teaching career, Mrs. Childs provided an excellent role model and mentor for her students. She was designated ?Mrs. Georgia Homemaker? in 1960, Georgia CVAE Vocational Teacher of the Year in 1976, and was chosen twice as Georgia?s Outstanding Business Teacher of the Year. Mrs. Childs was a life-long Missionary Baptist and a member of Missionary Baptist Churches in the areas where she and her family lived, culminating in her thirty-five year membership in the First Baptist Church of Thomasville. She taught Sunday School, Baptist Training Union, and Vacation Bible School classes and played the piano for many church functions. She was the Director of the Women?s Missionary Union of the First Baptist Church of Thomasville for over twenty years and chaired its committee to host the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Women?s Missionary Union in 1992. She played an active role in many clubs and civic organizations . She was a past president of the Woman?s Club of Thomasville and a charter docent at Pebble Hill Plantation. Mrs. Childs is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Richard A. Childs and Mimi Pease Childs of Columbus; her granddaughter, Louisa Banks Childs of New York City; her sister and brother-in-law, Marjorie Nell Beall Morgan and Jack Morgan of Macon; her sisters-in-law, Cherrie Dean Beall of Hazlehurst and Rita Holtsberry of Waynesboro,; her brother-in-law, Joe Walker, of Hazlehurst; and numerous nieces and nephews. Her husband of sixty-two years, Wallace Clifton Childs, died in December 2006. Two brothers, W. G. Beall and James Edward Beall, and a sister, Maxine Beall Walker, also predeceased her. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Women?s Missionary Union of the First Baptist Church of Thomasville, PO Box 2790, Thomasville, GA 31799. Vistors may sign the online guest register at www.allenfh.com .
ALLEN & ALLEN FUNERAL HOME