Edna Durham

Funeral Services for Miss Edna Durham,96, a long-time resident of Turner County, will he held at 11:00 A. M. Wednesday at the Sycamore Baptist Church with burial to follow in the Rose Hill Cemetery, Ashburn. Miss Durham died Monday August 28, 2006, at Tift Health Care where she was confined for several years.

Miss Durham spent 45 years teaching in the elementary grades of Turner County. As a devout Christian, she gave freely of her time to the Sycamore Baptist Church were she served as a Sunday School teacher and church pianist for long periods of time.

She was the daughter of the late John Clarence and Esma Cox Durham. After Mr. Durham died, her mother married John Brackett Hardy. She was reared, after nine years of age in the Hardy home located east of Sycamore.

Miss Durham’s father was a leading a citizen of Turner County and was elected to the position of County Ordinary, but he met death from a ruptured appendix just prior to taking office. Her mother was the daughter of S. M. Cox, sheriff of Worth County who left Worth and moved to Turner after buying the Clyde Hotel which he and his family operated for several years.

Her aunt, Miss Nina Cox, was the legendary first woman to be elected to public office in Turner County and Georgia, and it was she who spearheaded the consolidation of schools throughout Turner County and put the school bus routes in place.

Miss Durham is survived by a half-brother, Owen B. Hardy, Sr. and his three children, Janet Elizabeth Hardy, Owen B. Hardy, Jr. and John C. Hardy all of whom live in the Atlanta area. Reginald Ann Rogers of Albany is an only surviving first cousin.

Other surviving kin include Billy Jones of Tifton and his children, as well as other descendants of the late Claude Jones who moved from Ashburn to Thomaston many years ago.

The family will receive friends Tuesday evening from 6:00 P. M. until 8:00 P. M. at the funeral home.