Obit – Mrs. Bonnie Middleton Gregory
Mrs. Bonnie Middleton Gregory of Lebanon died at the family’s West End Heights home at 9: 50 a.m. Sunday morning surrounded by her family. She was pronounced deceased at the age of 81 at 11:04 a.m. Sunday morning October 27, 2024 and was under the care of Gentiva Hospice of Lebanon.
Mrs. Gregory was at the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home where funeral services were conducted on Wednesday afternoon October 30th at 1 p.m. Her pastor, Eld. Garry “Buster” Drennon and Eld. Michael Drennon officiated. Interment followed in the Gregory family lot in the Amonette-Taylor section at the Dixon Springs Cemetery.
Born Bonnie Lee Middleton in Carthage on December 1, 1942, she was the daughter of Savanah in Hardin County, Tennessee native Joe Leonard Middleton who died January 15, 1990 at the age of 74 and Lutts Community in Wayne County, Tennessee native Jessie Wayne House Middleton who died October 3, 1983 at the age of 77. Her parents were buried in the Lutts Cemetery in Lutts, Tennessee.
Mrs. Gregory was a member of the 1960 graduating class at Smith County High School. She had a triple major in mathematics, science and home economics. Her freshman year she was in the science club, was a member of the junior play cast and her senior year was a member of the office staff.
The statement made of her in the ’60 annual was; “Good nature, the beauty of the soul.”
Following graduation in “60, in 1961 she began employment with what would become a forty-two-year career with the then Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company in Lebanon where she was a switchboard operator before the advent of the rotary dial phone in 1964. She retired as a clerk for A T & T in 2013.
At the Maces Hill Missionary Baptist Church on June 21, 1962, she was united in marriage to her high school sweetheart, Dixon Springs Community native Royce Allen Gregory,
They were preceded in death by a son-in-law, Jeffrey Alan “Bodene” Smith who died at the age of 35 on October 10, 1999 after suffering a massive heart attack.
She was saved at a young age around 11 and after marriage she was united by testimony and experience with the Maces Hill Missionary Baptist Church where her membership remained.
After relocating to Lebanon, she and her husband attended the Town Creek Old Fashioned Missionary Baptist Church on Africa Road in Lebanon.
Surviving in addition to her husband Royce of over sixty-two years are their two daughters, Kitty Gregory Smith of the Elmwood Community, Karin Gregory Wilkerson and husband Jeff of the Grant Community; sister, Robbie Joe Middleton Robertson of Knoxville; three grandchildren, Brandi Smith Patterson and husband Tracy of Watertown, Amber Smith Mitchell and husband Chase of the Elmwood Community; Jessie Smith and wife Elizabeth of the Chestnut Mound Community five great-grandchildren, Taryne Patterson, Noah and Kaden Smith, Avian and Isla Rose Mitchell.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
