Oma McCall Cumbee, 95, of Ocilla, Georgia, died Saturday, September 13, 2003, at Fitzgerald Nursing Home in Fitzgerald.
Funeral services will be 11 AM Monday, September 15, 2003, at Ocilla Baptist Church with Rev. Gerald Thomas and Rev. Robert Couey officiating. Interment will follow in Ocilla Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the funeral home from 7 to 9 P.M. Sunday.
Mrs. Cumbee was born July 19, 1908, in Wilcox County, Georgia, to the late John Andrew McCall and Oma Gertrude Flowers McCall. After graduating from high school in Cordele in 1926, Mrs. Cumbee earned her B.A. from Georgia State College for Women and Master’s Degree from the University of Georgia. After two years of teaching in Richland, Georgia, she moved to Ocilla where she met and married her late husband John A. Cumbee, Sr. During her career as an educator, she taught grades four, five and six. In 1956, she was Teacher of the Year. The last nineteen years of her career were spent as a visiting teacher, when she retired at the age of seventy. Mrs. Cumbee also worked for Sheriff Tillman Paulk in Irwin County for a number of years. She was a member of the Ocilla Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School for thirty-four years. An active community volunteer, Mrs. Cumbee was a charter member of the Delta Kappa Gamma, charter member of the Pilot Club, charter member of the Ocilla Book Club, charter member of the Arts Council, one of the first board members of Sunny Dale, a member of the Ben Hill-Irwin Retired Educator’s Association and Us and Others. Mrs. Cumbee was honored by the Ocilla-Irwin County Chamber of Commerce by receiving the Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2000.
Mrs. Cumbee is survived by two sons and daughters-in-law, John A. and Josephine Cumbee, Jr., of Destin, Florida and Joe and Laura Cumbee of Fitzgerald, Georgia. She is also survived by five grandchildren: Eric Cumbee, Clay Cumbee, Lee Cumbee, Deborah Long and Selena Bridges and four great grandchildren: Abigail Long, Caroline Long, Davis Long and Shepherd Bridges.
Paulk Funeral Home, Ocilla, Georgia, is in charge of arrangements.