Obit — Mina Key Henderson

Retired Smith County educator, Mrs. Mina Key Henderson of Carthage died at 5:12 a.m. Wednesday morning March 22, 2023 at the age of 87 at the Quality Center for Rehabilitation and Healing in Lebanon.

Mrs. Henderson was at the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home and was cremated at the Cumberland Family Services in Algood.

A memorial reception at the Carthage United Methodist Church Christian Life Center will take place April 15th with the time to be announced.

A private inurnment will be beside her husband at the Historic Mount Olivet Cemetery on Donelson Pike in Nashville.

She was born Mina Frances Armstrong in Castalian Springs and was one of three children of the late Benjamin Rankin Armstrong, a noted horse breeder and walking horse trainer who died November 5, 1976 at the age of 79 and Mary Virginia Anthony Armstrong who died June 20, 1981 at the age of 80.

Mrs. Henderson was preceded in death by her two siblings, sister, Martha Jean Armstrong Atchley on August 26, 2017 at the age of 85 and her brother, James Russell “Bud” Armstrong, who died in December of 1990 at the age of 52.

Also preceding Mrs. Henderson in death was a grandson, Benjamin Tone Cowan who died February 10, 1992 at the age of 6 months and a son-in-law, Vince Plummer who died in 2020.

She was a 1955 graduate of Trousdale County High School.

Following her graduation from high school she attended Stephens College, an exclusive college for women in Columbia, Missouri and received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Education at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro and her Master of Science Degree in Education from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville.

Mrs. Henderson taught in the Smith County School System for over thirty years, first at Cox-Davis Elementary School in the Riddleton Community and completed her tenure at the Carthage Elementary School teaching 4th grade and near the final years of her teaching taught the Title I students.

She was a member of the Carthage United Methodist Church near her Fisher Avenue home.

Surviving are her two children, Valerie “Val” Key Cowan of LaVergne, Nathaniel Baxter “Baxie” Key III of Carthage; granddaughter, Catherine Pernell and husband Brandon of Atlanta, Georgia; grand Dog Toby Pernell.

SANDERSON of CARTHAGE