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OBIT: Brenda Bratcher

Mrs. Brenda Bratcher, of Carthage, wife of Carthage First Freewill Baptist Church pastor Frank Bratcher, died 5 days following their fifty year wedding anniversary in the ICU at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville at the age of 65 at 3:10 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, July 1, 2020, where she had been undergoing a stem cell transplant. Days following the surgery she suffered a brain aneurysm.

Funeral services from the Carthage First Freewill Baptist Church in the Tanglewood community were conducted by the former associate pastor, Bro. Craig Mahler, assisted by Bro. Dwayne Barnes at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon, July 5th. Burial followed in the Garden of Everlasting Life at Smith County Memorial Gardens.

One of three sons and the only daughter, she was born Brenda Gail Crook in Smithville on March 21, 1955 and is survived by her mother, Nettie Lou Certain Crook Judkins of the Blue Springs community and the late Will Allen Crook, who died at the age of 34 on July 21, 1968.

Two brothers preceded her in death, Glenn Allen Crook, who died April 7, 1995 at the age of 39, and Gary Wayne Crook, who died January 2, 2004 at the age of 43.

She was also preceded in death by her step-father, Jerry Bruce Judkins, who died at the age of 79 on June 26, 2020.

Mrs. Bratcher was united in marriage to Smithville native Franklin D. “Frank” Bratcher in DeKalb County on June 26, 1970.

Mr. and Mrs. Bratcher moved from Smithville to the Kempville community in 1983 where he assumed the pastorate of the Kempville Chapel Old Time Methodist Church, before establishing the Carthage First Freewill Baptist Church.

She was a home health nurse for Caris Home Health for over fifteen years.

Mrs. Bratcher was a member of the Carthage First Freewill Baptist Church and was educated in the DeKalb County School system.

Surviving, in addition to her husband and her mother, are two sons, Bryan Bratcher, pastor of the Kempville Chapel Old Time Methodist Church, and his wife, Traci Dickens Bratcher, of Carthage, Shane Bratcher and wife, Jamie, of the Defeated Creek community; brother, Billy Crook and wife, Ofelia, of the Blue Springs community in DeKalb County; three grandchildren, Scarlett Bratcher Looney and husband, Jordan, Nick Bratcher and wife, Selena, Emma Grace Bratcher; three step-grandchildren, James Ballard, Ethan and Ace Markwell; three great grandchildren.

The Bratcher family requests memorials to the Carthage First Freewill Baptist Church.

SANDERSON of CARTHAGE

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