OBIT: Mrs. Christine Massey Winkler, Age 93, Of Pleasant Shade
Mrs. Christine Massey Winkler, a retired Pleasant Shade Postal Clerk, died peacefully at 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon November 7, 2017, at her Pleasant Shade Highway home following a period of declining health. She was pronounced deceased at 6:18 p.m. by Kindred Hospice of Cookeville who had been lovingly caring for her since June. Mrs. Winkler was 93.
Her longtime former pastor Eld. James Thomas Gibbs and her present pastor Eld. Kenny Hensley officiated at the Friday afternoon November 10th funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Following the 1 p.m. services burial was beside her husband in the Massey family lot in the Beasley-Brooks section of the Dixon Springs Cemetery.
One of two daughters of the late Buie Jackson Massey who died at the age of 85 on April 22, 1991 and Maggie Maybell Gregory Massey who died at the age of 88 on February 25, 1994, she was born Mary Christine Massey in Nashville on October 12, 1924.
Mrs. Winkler’s sister, Lorene Massey died at the age of 3 years and 3 months on December 6, 1933.
Mrs. Winkler was a 1945 graduate of Smith County High School where she majored in home economics and served on the Home Ec. Council her freshman and sophomore years and was in the home economics club all four years. Her class mates said of her, “she was always methodical and considerate.”
On March 30, 1947, in Rossville, Georgia she was united in marriage to Pleasant Shade Community native Benton Radford “Fat” Winkler who preceded her in death on November 29, 1992 at the age of 72.
At the age of 8 she was saved under an apple tree in the backyard of her grandfather, Eld. C. B. “Cap” Massey at his home in Sycamore Valley. She was baptized into the full fellowship of the Sycamore Valley Missionary Baptist Church and in June of 1939 moved her membership by letter to the Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church at Pleasant Shade where she remained a faithful and dedicated member until death and attended services weekly as long as health permitted.
Her first employment was at the former Sloan Bros. General Merchandise Store in Pleasant Shade and later as bookkeeper for her husband and Thomas Rye Cornwell at their Cornwell and Winkler Saw Mill and later Massey and Winkler Saw Mill, both at Pleasant Shade.
Mrs. Winkler served as the office postal clerk for the Pleasant Shade Post Office for over thirty years before retiring in September of 1992.
Surviving are her two children, Judy Winkler Massey and husband Eld. James “Pee Wee” Massey of Pleasant Shade, John Winkler and wife Alberta Armistead Winkler of the Helms Bend Community; six grandchildren, Mickey Massey of Ocala, Florida, Minda Massey Ratledge and husband Mack of Dixon Springs, Jamie Winkler and wife Amber Gwaltney Winkler of the Tanglewood Community, Todd Winkler and wife Rebekah of Knoxville, twins, Michael Winkler of Nashville and Matthew Winkler of Atlanta; four great-grandchildren, Jack Winkler, Xander Ratledge, John Haynes Winkler and Finn Armistead Winkler; sister-in-law, Faye Gregory Winkler and daughters Theodora and Theresa.
The Winkler family has requested memorials to the Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church Building Fund.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
