Mr. Frank M. Snowden, 92, of Fitzgerald, died peacefully on Wednesday, February 25, 2015, at Dorminy Medical Center with his family at his side.
Services for Mr. Snowden will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, February 28, at The Paulk Funeral Chapel with the Rev. Dr. Ken Ross and the Rev. Dan Hughes officiating. Charlie Gray will deliver the eulogy. Interment will follow in the Evergreen Cemetery. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
He was born on September 8, 1922 in Willow, Florida to the late Ernest LeRoy and Cora Spare Snowden. After the untimely death of his mother, he was raised by his grandparents, James McRae and Mary Jane Snowden. He graduated from Fitzgerald High School in 1941 and attended Bob Jones College in Cleveland, Tennessee before serving his country honorably in the Army Air Corps during the second world war. He later earned a degree in Business Administration and Education from Valdosta State College and taught for a period at schools in Mystic as well as Lynnwood. He was a gentleman farmer, and also worked for his father-in-law, John Parks Sutton, at Sutton's grocery store. As a member of Fitzgerald's First Baptist Church, he served as a deacon for many years, as well as being a Sunday School teacher and filling in for the church's nursing home ministry.
Frank Snowden was a kind a caring man who believed in helping the poor. When he was managing Sutton's grocery, he often excused the debts of those who could not pay. Possessing a wry sense of humor, he was always in good spirits and often laughed. He loved his church and read his Bible, which he was holding when he died, daily. He took great joy in his granddaughters and particularly, in his three great-grandsons.
His first wife, Dorothy Sutton Snowden, died in 1975. His second wife, Jacquelyn "Jackie" Robitzsh Snowden, died in 2011. His survivors include his daughter and son-in-law, Mary Jane Snowden White and her husband, Tom; his grandchildren: Dorothy Alecia White Barrett, and her husband, Thomas, of Soperton; and Jane Allison White Norris, and her husband, Brian, of Douglas; his great-grandchildren: Bradlee, Alec, and Allen Barrett; his stepdaughter, Linda Gray and her husband, Charlie, of Hilton Head, SC; two stepsons: John Mann of Cordele and Marion Mann of Atlanta; step-grandchildren: Ava and Tim Montgomery, Brian Spicer, Nichole Mann, Alan Mann, Justin Mann, Micki Moore, Jeremy Angel, and Jennifer and Dagan Sharpe; step great-grandchildren: Tyler Montgomery, Paul Montgomery, and Taylor Mann; and a sister-in-law, Virginia Snowden. Extended family includes Eliud Hernandez and Raymond Hughes. His brothers, Jim Snowden and Billy Snowden, as well as two infant brothers, preceded him in death.
The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, memorials be made to the First Baptist Church, P. O. Box 367, Fitzgerald, Georgia 31750.