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Submitted: 4/18/14 • Approved: 4/18/14 • Last Updated: 8/15/15 • R56027-G0-S3
October 29, 1919 - October 28, 2009
Ralph Whitaker (who had no middle name) was born in late October in mid Sullivan County, Tennessee. His father David Whitaker was a farmer and his mother, Mary Goodman Whitaker, was a homemaker. Ralph Whitaker was born, on a late October day, circa 1919, in a log cabin on what is now the shore of Boone Lake near Blountville, Tennessee. He and his family later lived for a while near what is now Tri-Cities Airport near Blountville. He was raised in the Brethren Church in that area. He attended Sullivan County Schools graduating from what was then Holston High School near the airport. His employment included working on the family farm, later working for a Bristol area dairy and, finally,working for S.E. Massengill Company which later became Beecham-Massengill and had other mergers. He retired from that firm after 35 years of service. In his later years, he conducted a small yard service trimming trees and the like. Ralph Whitaker married Elizabeth Martin in the late 1940s and they were married for over 50 years before his wife's passing in February of 2000. After their marriage there, he joined his wife as a member of Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, in Bristol, Tennessee, serving the the Sunday School and as a Deacon for over 64 years. In his younger years he enjoyed bowling and fishing, particularly fishing. Ralph and Elizabeth Whitaker had two daughters, in the early 1950s, Amanda Una, who later became a teacher, and Sandra who later became a social worker. Amanda married Comer C. Musick, Jr.(of Russell County, VA) and they had Ralph and Elizabeth's first granddaughter Laura. Sandra married E. Marshall Buckles(native of Bristol,VA,raised in Bristol,TN) and they had Ralph and Elizabeth's second granddaughter "Beth". Ralph and Elizabeth initially lived on Pennsylvania Avenue, in Bristol, Tennessee, with their two daughters but the family later moved to Park Street in Bristol, VA where they lived for many years. After the passing of his wife, Elizabeth Whitaker, Ralph Whitaker continued to live on Park Street, in Bristol, VA until his health started to fail and he had to move in with his daughter and her husband near Rosedale, Virginia in Russell County, VA. On October 28, just a day short of his 90th birthday, Ralph Whitaker passed into the arms of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and, after a memorial service in Bristol, VA, his body was interred next to his beloved wife Elizabeth Whitaker's grave at Glenwood Cemetery in Bristol, Tennessee.
Contributed on 4/18/14 by cemphotovolchic
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Record #: 56027