Nancy Evelyn Cantrell

Brummitt-McKenzie Funeral Home 1740 East Cedar Street, McKenzie,TN 38201 Office:731-352-4848 Fax: (731) 352-4801 UNIVERSAL OBITUARY FORM Dateline: ATHENS, GA Graveside Funeral Services for Nancy Evelyn Cantrell will be Thursday, May 28, 2015 at 2: 00 p.m. at Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Mrs. Cantrell, 82, died at her home in Athens, Georgia, on Friday, May 22, 2015, after a long illness. She was born in McKenzie, Tennessee on December 31, 1932, to Alvin and Laverne Dinkins. She attended McKenzie schools and graduated from McKenzie High School in 1950. Nancy graduated from Bethel College in McKenzie, where she met James Cantrell of Palmersville, Tennessee. They married in 1954. Nancy and Jim, with their growing family, lived in Oxford, Mississippi and Knoxville, Tennessee, while Jim attended graduate school, settling in Athens in 1962, where he taught mathematics at the University of Georgia. The family also spent one year in Princeton, New Jersey. For many years, Nancy managed Cantrell's Country Corner at the Athens Flea Market, where the Cantrell's displayed and traded countless fascinating rural antiques. Nancy's warm and welcoming spirit were evident throughout her life, as was her love music. Her hospitality and friendship nurtured communities of friends, including her " adopted" family at Sparky's Seafood Restaurant, the Flea Market, the University of Georgia mathematics department and St. James United Methodist Church, where she was a member. Nancy was predeceased by her parents, Alvin and Laverne Dinkins of McKenzie, Tennessee, and by two daughters, Karen Evelyn and Susan Elizabeth who died in infancy. She is survived by her husband, James Cecil Cantrell, Cathryn and Christopher Potter of Bound Brook, New Jersey, Timothy Cantrell of Athens, Michael and Olga Cantrell of St. Petersburg, Russia; four granddaughters, Elizabeth Potter, Laura Potter, Kate Potter Leary, and Valerie Cantrell; and one great-granddaughter, Anne Fitzgibbons. Bernstein Funeral Home and Cremation and Brummitt-McKenzie Funeral Home are in charge of arrangements.