Mary Etta Hodge Cunningham died on January 26, 2021. She was born in Jelico, TN on May 21, 1937 to Robert Lee and Hazel Mae (McNealy) Hodge. She loved and admired her parents and remained close to her 3 siblings throughout their lives. She was a smart and sassy kid who earned her lifelong nickname “Priss”. She grew into a gorgeous force of nature. Mary met Thomas Cunningham at Cumberland College at 18 years of age, and although he was supposed to marry some other girl, they fell in love and were married when she was 19. She went on to raise three treasured children and had six grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. She was dedicated homemaker with an eye for color, a talent with cross-stitch and a tremendous gift for cooking. She loved to feed her family. She was also at times in her life a proud employee of the US Postal Service, and the election commission among others.
Her devotion to family and country was nearly matched by her love for books. She read countless thousands of novels and her vocabulary was truly impressive. She often used her grasp of English language to tell you exactly what she thought. In a game of Scrabble she was truly spectacular. She loved to see the world and make new friends and play games online. Her grandchildren loved to brag about how their grandmother traveled from the mountains of Tennessee across the world to Australia and New Zealand to meet a friend she met online; she was nearly 70 at the time.
Mary is preceded in death by many dear friends and family including her parents, her brother Robert “Bobby” Hodge, her niece Nicki Hodge Parton, and her precious son Thomas “Andy” Cunningham. She is survived by the love of her life Thomas J. Cunningham, her sisters Patricia Pike and Sallie Griffiths, her daughters and their husbands Lynn Clinton and Rick Schoenly and Tina and Russell Gross, her daughter-in-love Amy Cunningham, her 6 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren as well as many other in-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.
She was interred at Berry Highland Memorial cemetery in a private service and a memorial will be held at a later date due to the current Covid-19 crisis. In lieu of flowers please make donations in her name to the adrenoleukodystrophy foundation (ALDfoundation.org). When you want to remember her, go to your local public library and check out a good murder mystery. When you do, know that she would certainly have figured out who the killer was way before the end.
We like to think about her in heaven today, holding her mama’s hand after 75 long years apart, with her other hand tucked into the arm of her only son after 10 months apart that felt like 75 years. Those who loved her will always miss her.
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