Obit – Mrs. Dean Sanders
Mrs. Dean Sanders, a homemaker of the Elmwood Community, departed her earthly journey at 9:30 p.m. Saturday evening May 4th, at the Smith County Health and Rehabilitation Center in Carthage with her son and two nieces by her bedside. The 83 year old Mrs. Sanders had been residing at the facility since being admitted April 2nd from her home at the Pavilion in South Carthage and was pronounced deceased at 12:05 a.m. Sunday morning May 25, 2024..
Mrs. Sanders’s pastor, Eld. Stephen Farley Brooks assisted by her former pastor, Eld. Rickey Hall, officiated at the 1 p.m. Wednesday afternoon May 8th funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Burial followed between her husband and son in the Sanders family lot in the Garden of Gethsemane at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.
She was one of three children, a daughter and two sons, of the late Joe Lee Harpe who died November 12, 1994 at the age of 81 and Amelia Easter Thompson Harpe Hunter Henry who died September 2, 2004 at the age of 87 and was born Melba Dean Harpe in South Carthage on February 28, 1941.
Two brothers, Phillip Harpe and Kenneth Harpe preceded her in death.
Mrs. Sanders was a 1959 graduate of Smith County High School. There she majored in Home Economics, was a member of the Beta Club her junior year and in her freshman and sophomore years was a class officer, a member of the Latin Club and in the Smith County High School Marching Band.
The statement made of her in the “59 senior annual was: “Love’s too precious to be lost”.
She was saved at the age of 20 in 1961 under the preaching of Eld. Phocian Gibbs and was baptized at Pipers Ford in the Caney Fork River by Eld. Walter Deweese and was baptized into the full fellowship of the South Carthage Missionary Baptist Church.
On December 20, 1958 at the home of the late Eld. Phocian Gibbs, she was united in marriage to South Carthage native J. T. Sanders who preceded her in death on March 31, 2023 at the age of 85 following over sixty four years of marriage.
She transferred her membership by letter to the North Gordonsville Missionary Baptist church where she remained a faithful member until her death.
Mr. and Mrs. Sanders were preceded in death by one of their two sons, J. T. “Jay” Sanders Jr. who died at the age of 53 on June 4, 2021.
Mrs. Sanders was a former teacher’s aide at the former South Carthage Elementary School, was employed for several years at the former Carthage Shirt Corporation and formerly was employed by the former Ligon Tax Service on the square in Carthage.
Surviving is her son, Chuck Sanders of the Elmwood Community; four grandchildren, Trevor Logan Sanders and wife Allison, where Trevor is on duty assignment with the United States Navy out of Virginia, Maggie Rose Sanders of Lebanon, Anna Kate Sanders of Carthage, and Miranda Sanders of Lewisburg.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
