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Obit – Mr. Grover Ellenburg, Jr.

Mr. Grover Ellenburg, Jr.,

Lifelong South Carthage resident and community supporter, Mr. Grover Ellenburg Jr., was discovered deceased on his Kennys Bend Lane Community farm on Wednesday evening. The call to the Smith County Rescue Squad was received at Smith County E-911 at 7: 05 p.m. and shortly thereafter an ambulance was dispatched. He was pronounced dead at 8:10 p.m. April 7, 2021 at the Riverview Regional Medical Center in Carthage. Mr. Ellenburg was 76.

Mr. Ellenburg was transported to the Metro Medical Examiner Office in Nashville and at this time the cause of death was pending but appeared to be from a medical emergency.

He was at the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Following cremation at the Cumberland Family Services in Algood his cremains will be interred in the Ellenburg family lot in the Garden of Gethsemane at Smith County Memorial Gardens.

A Service of remembrance to celebrate his life before a standing room only of friends and former-co-workers and fellow firemen, was conducted by his Pastor, Bro. Wayne Malone, at the Rome Baptist Church on Sunday afternoon April 11th at 2 p.m.

One of two sons and a daughter born to the late Grover Edward Ellenburg Sr. who died August 31, 1985 at the age of 66 and Mabel Boulton Ellenburg who died January 26, 2008 at the age of 87, he was born Grover Edward Ellenburg Jr. at the family home in South Carthage on March 20, 1945 and was the middle child.

On the Charlie Ray Underwood family farm in the Kenny’s Bend Community, Mr. Ellenburg was joined in Holy Matrimony to his high school sweetheart, the former Janice Dean Underwood. The ceremony was performed shortly following Janice’s 1964 graduation from S. C. H. S. by the late Eld. Phocian Gibbs on June 6, 1964.

Mr. Ellenburg was a 1963 graduate of Smith County High School where he majored in science and mathematics and played football all four years was a member of the “C” club and played baseball through his junior year. In the annual it stated he was calm-cool-collected and “He that hath patience may compass anything”.

He continued his studies following graduation by attending the Nashville Auto Diesel College in 1964 and began employment as a mechanic with the former Spring Street Motor Co. following graduation which was located in the building which presently houses the Town Hall for the Town of Carthage.

In September of 1966 he was selected to be trained as a lineman for the Upper Cumberland Membership Corporation and retired from there in 2007 with the position of serviceman for the North side of the river. His career spanned over forty one years.

Since retirement he had spent many hours and days on the family’s Kennys Bend Farm, a place that was dear to his heart and having had a job that consisted of outside work in all types of weather, this was a perfect way for him to enjoy retirement.

Active in the South Carthage Community, he was a charter member of the South Carthage Volunteer Fire Department, a volunteerism which lasted for over fifty years, and at the time of his death he served on the Town’s Planning Commission.

His religious journey began as a teenager when he was saved while attending the Plunketts Creek Missionary Baptist Church and at the time of his death had been a longtime member of the Rome Baptist Church where he was very active and had served as a Deacon for over thirty years.

Surviving in addition to his wife of almost fifty seven years are their two children, daughter Teresa Ellenburg of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Richard Ellenburg and wife Retta Bennett Ellenburg of the Kennys Bend Community; two grandchildren, Lauren Ellenburg of South Carthage, Jared Ellenburg and wife Tori Hale Ellenburg of the Defeated Creek Community; great-grandson, Colton Ellenburg also of South Carthage; sister, Elaine Ellenburg Craighead of Gulf Shores, Alabama; brother, Sammie Ellenburg and wife Janie Wright Ellenburg of the Rome Community.

The Ellenburg family requests memorials to the Rome Baptist Church

SANDERSON of CARTHAGE