Obit – Mrs. Jeraldine Wheeler Dunn
A retired educator, Mrs. Jeraldine Wheeler Dunn of the Kempville Community, departed this life to be with her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ at 3:40 a.m. Monday morning February 24, 2025 at the Smith County Health and Rehabilitation Center in Carthage under the care of Gentiva Hospice of Livingston. Mrs. Dunn was 86 years of age.
Memorial services were conducted Saturday morning March 1st at 11 a.m. from the Pleasant Shade Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The church pastor, Eld. Scott Rigsby assisted by Eld. Gerald Ragland, Pastor Gary Wilson and Pastor Johnathan Rich officiated. There will be a private interment services at a later date for she and her late husband at the Pleasant Shade Cemetery.
Mrs. Dunn was born Jeraldine Janet Wheeler in Rush Springs in Grady County, Oklahoma on May 14, 1938 and was the younger of two children of the late Rev. Vanloe Sylvester Wheeler who died June 6, 2000 at the age of 84 and Lillian Mae Rury Wheeler who died in 1988 at the age of 71 and Mrs. Jeraldine spent her childhood as a Nazarene preacher’s daughter.
Mrs. Dunn was preceded in death by a grandson, Damon Mathew Dunn who died at the age of 21 on June 28, 2016.
As the daughter of a preacher, she played piano for worship services as her father pastored churches in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington state, and California.
Mrs. Dunn was a 1956 graduate of Grady High School in Broadview, New Mexico where she was the Valedictorian of her senior graduating class.
She later graduated with a Master’s degree in education from the Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena, California.
In March of 1964 she was united in marriage to Albert Ray Dunn who preceded her in death at the age of 79 on September 17, 2017 and both had careers in education.
She was a homemaker for her daughter and son and after they were grown, she continued her career by teaching elementary classes in private Christian schools, as well as serving on numerous church boards, missionary societies, playing the piano for worship services.
A conservative estimate is that she played some 60,000 hymns in her music ministry, just in worship services alone. She loved the Lord and doing his earthly work, loved serving others, loved her family and never doubted doing the Lord’s will for her life.
Surviving is her loving family which includes a daughter, Lisa Dunn of Carthage; her son, former Smith County Republican party chairman, Mike Dunn and his wife Rachel and their two sons, Jackson and Brennan Dunn all of the Kempville Community; her older brother, Irv Wheeler and wife Joyce of Lancaster, California, and in-laws from her husband’s family.
SANDERSON of KEMPVILLE
