Obit – Mrs. Reba Joy Lankford McCall
Mrs. Reba Joy Lankford McCall age 95, a homemaker of the Watervale Community, departed this life at 7:57 a.m. Wednesday morning March 12, 2025 with family members at her bedside at the Hartsville Health and Rehabilitation Center under the care of Gentiva Hospice of Lebanon.
Her pastor, Eld. Jeff Patterson, officiated at the Friday morning March 14th funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Burial followed the 11 a.m. services beside her husband, John A., in the Garden of Everlasting Life at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.
She was born Reba Joy Lankford in the Defeated Creek Community on February 30, 1930 and was the only daughter of six children of the late Horace Dodson Lankford who died at the age of 43 on May 9, 1950 and Margie Victoria Matthews Lankford who died at the age of 90 on March 30, 1997.
Four of her five brothers preceded her in death, Horace Dodson Lankford Jr. who died April 26, 1947 a few hours following birth, Willard Edward Lankford who died December 6, 2016 at the age of 88, Lavon Lankford who died August 7, 2021 at the age of 78, and Don Q. Lankford who died October 15, 2021 at the age of 84.
She also endured the loss of a great grandson, Ethan Spencer “E.E.” Way, who died August 12, 2020 at the age of 19.
Mrs. McCall was a member of the 1948 graduating class at the Carthage High School where her major was home economics which classes she was in all four years. She was also a member of the commercial club her junior year, the band and art club her senior year and the 4-H club her freshman and sophomore years.
At the Carthage First Baptist Church on November 1, 1951, she was united in marriage to Watervale Community native, John Alexander McCall. The ceremony was performed by then church pastor, Bro. Frank Parrish.
Together she and her husband, who preceded her in death on May 24, 2008 at the age of 77, owned and operated the Watervale Grocery for nine years, the Rock City Grocery for twenty-two years before retiring in 1993 and later operated the Rivermont Variety and Produce Store until 2007.
Following graduation from high school she taught for a short time at the former Elbow School located in the Ashhopper Hollow near her then home.
Mrs. McCall was a loyal member of the Friendship Primitive Baptist Church in the Defeated Creek Community.
Surviving are her five children, Mike McCall and wife Janie Kemp McCall of the Tanglewood Community, Harold McCall and wife Rosa Grisham McCall of the Watervale Community, Horace McCall and wife Mahalia Bowman McCall of the Watervale Community, Sue McCall Gunter and husband Cliff of Maryville, TN, Annette McCall and husband Ebbie Ray Lankford of South Carthage; brother, former Smith County High School principal and Superintendent of Schools, Wayne Lankford and wife Anna Mai Massey Lankford of the Tanglewood Community; seven grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren; and sixteen great-great-grandchildren.
The McCall family requests memorials to either the Friendship Primitive Baptist Church or the Smith County Senior Citizen Center.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
