Evelyn Owens Kelley Combs, 90, of St. Augustine, Florida, died Thursday, January 1, 2009 at her home surrounded by her loving family.
Funeral services will be held 2 P.M., Sunday, January 4, 2009 in the Paulk Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Keith Goodlett officiating. Interment will follow in the Evergreen Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 7 to 9 P.M. Saturday evening at the funeral home.
Mrs. Combs was born August 29, 1918 in Fitzgerald to the late Thomas Hardy, Sr. and Lucy Mitchell Owens. She attended public schools and graduated from Fitzgerald High School in 1937 where she was the Literary Editor for the Fitz-Hi-News in 1935, 1936, and 1937. She was a charter member of the Fitzgerald Writers Club and was a radio writer for WBHB. Mrs. Combs was a Legal Secretary for many years. She authored two historical novels; “Seeded Furrows” and “King Cotton”. For the past three years she made her home in St. Augustine moving from Ormond Beach where she had lived for fifty years. She was a member of the Methodist faith and member of Order of Eastern Star.
Mrs. Combs is survived by her daughters and son-in-laws; Kelley & Elvin, Jr. Yarbrough and Barbara & Phillip Gandy all of St. Augustine, Fl; Brother, T. Hardy Owens, Jr. of Fitzgerald and sister, Tommie Sherrer of Macon; three grandchildren: Darlene Gandy, Phillip Gandy, Jr. & Elvin Pearce Yarbrough, III; three great grandchildren: Lea Gandy, Phillip Gandy, III & Pearce Yarbrough, IV and one great great grandchild: Eliza Gandy Strickland. Along with her parents, she was preceded in death her husbands, Luther H. Kelley and Stanley Combs, twin brother Everett Owens, brother W.D. “Butch” Owens, two sisters, Elizabeth Herring and Dorothy Garrett.