Florence Davis Stepp, 81, of Fitzgerald, died Monday, February 8, 2010, at the Life Care Center.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 P.M., Thursday, February 11, 2010 at the Paulk Funeral Home Chapel in Fitzgerald with Dr. Mike Ruffin officiating. Interment will follow in Evergreen Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 7-9 Wednesday evening at the funeral home.
Mrs. Stepp was born Katherine Florence Davis on January 6, 1929 in Anniston, Alabama, to the late Withers and Annie Black Davis. She graduated in 1947 from Clinton High School in Clinton, NC and received her BS Degree in Elementary Education from Queens University in Charlotte, NC. While living in Clinton, she was a member of the First Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday school for the youth dept. Mrs. Stepp met her husband at Fort Bragg while teaching school at Fort Bragg Post School. She also taught for the Fayetteville schools, Cumberland County and in Wilmington, NC before moving to Fitzgerald in 1973. Mrs. Stepp taught 6th grade English at Fitzgerald Jr. High School and was named teacher Of The Year in 1983 for the Fitzgerald city schools. She then moved to the middle school and was named Teacher Of The Year for Ben Hill County in 1993-94. She was a member of the Ben Hill-Irwin Retired Educators, the UDC and the DAR. Mrs. Stepp was an avid Bridge player and a member of seven Bridge clubs. She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Fitzgerald and the Geneva Sunday School class.
She is survived by a son: William Thomas “Bill” Stepp, III of Ashburn; daughter: Katherine (Bill) Rouse Cooper of Lawrenceville; grandchildren: Blake Rouse, Jessica Anne Stepp, William Thomas Stepp, IV and Randi Elaine Stepp. Along with her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, William Thomas Stepp, Jr.