Dianne Penelope Griner, 75, of Fitzgerald, Georgia, died Wednesday, September 21, 2016, at Tift Regional Medical Center in Tifton.
Funeral services will be held 4 PM, Sunday, September 25, 2016, at The Paulk Funeral Home Chapel in Fitzgerald, with the Rev. Steve O’Neal officiating. Interment will follow in Evergreen Cemetery. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
Ms. Griner was born August 15, 1941, in Fitzgerald, Georgia, to the late Dr. A.B. & Nina Lou Bass Griner. She was a 1959 graduate of Fitzgerald High School and graduated from Norman Park College Nursing School. She worked for several years as a nurse at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany. She moved to Charlotte, North Carolina and worked for a hospital there for several years. Ms. Griner later relocated to Atlanta, Georgia and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Georgia State University. She worked for several facilities while in Atlanta including Northside Hospital and Piedmont Hospital. She cared for patients in Intensive Care, Cardiac Care, and Neonatal Units. After retiring from nursing, she returned to Fitzgerald in 2000 where she lived the remainder of her life. Ms. Griner was an avid reader, a pianist, and a lover of classical and sacred music. She was a member of the Episcopal faith and attended St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Fitzgerald.
She is survived by her sister, Lorraine Griner Gorday of Fitzgerald; nieces: Diana M. Pate and husband Danny and Bebe McGowan, all of Fitzgerald; nephews: Mike Buglioli and wife Cathy of Upatoi and Ken Buglioli of Columbus; a number of great-nieces and nephews; as well as two very special friends that became like her family, Carole Comtois and Sharon MacKenzie, both of Abbeville. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a sister, Sylvia Griner Buglioli Crumbley; two nephews, Jay Buglioli and Gary Gorday; and two brothers-in-law, Jack Gorday and Johnny Buglioli.
The family suggests those desiring to send memorials may send them to the American Heart Association, c/o Shirley Coxen, 610 S. Lee Street, Fitzgerald, GA 31750 or to the American Cancer Society, Ben Hill County Relay for Life, c/o Marci Cleghorn, P.O. Box 989, Fitzgerald, GA 31750.