Tennie “Tena” Beatrice Hill Stephens

The funeral will be at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 15, 2015, at Collier-Butler Chapel. Reverend David Roberts will officiate. Burial will be at Forrest Cemetery. Collier-Butler Funeral and Cremation Services is directing.

Mrs. Stephens was born on November 4, 1920, near Sardis City in Etowah County. She was the eighth of ten children born to Tence Carl Hill and Julia Ann Mashburn Hill. She was the valedictorian of her graduating class at Sardis High School and earned degrees from Snead State College and Jacksonville State University. She married Woodrow J. Stephens on June 8, 1946. Her career as an educator included Whitesboro, Glencoe, Southside, and John S. Jones schools, and she was honored as the Etowah County Teacher of the Year in 1979. She has been a member of Twelfth Street Baptist Church since 1947, where she taught children’s Sunday school classes and Vacation Bible School.

Mrs. Stephens enjoyed entertaining and had welcomed close to three hundred people into her home for various events throughout the years. She was a member of Beta Sigma Phi, and in later years she enjoyed her outings with the Red Hat Society.

She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, Mary Julia Hiss and Ward Hiss of Marietta, GA, Rebecca McGill and David McGill of Trussville, and Cynthia Box and Karl Box of Moody; granddaughters, Susanna Hiss Pippel and Stephen Pippel of Knoxville, TN, Kendra Askew Homesley and Jason Homesley of Munford, and Allison Hiss Ramey and Arthur Ramey, Jr., of Homewood; great-grandchildren, Aiden Homesley, Caroline Pippel, Abigail Pippel, Tennyson Homesley, and Evan Homesley; and several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 47 years, former Etowah County Commission Chairman, Woodrow J. Stephens, in 1993; her parents; all of her siblings, Grace Walker, Gladys Robinson, T.C. Hill, Ora Dooley, Mazine Gilbreath, Simeon Hill, Goldie Whitt, Ida Wordlaw, and Calvin Hill; and all of her sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law.

Her nephews will serve as pallbearers.

Her family is especially grateful to Patsy Stephens and Deborah Logan for their loving care in the last several months, as well as to Dr. Ayers, The Camellia Lawley Hospice, and her neighbors for helping her in so many ways.

The family will accept friends from 1:30-3:30 p.m. prior to the service.