Obituary of Delores Lightsey Powell

WARNER ROBINS, GA- Delores Lightsey Powell, 76, transitioned to her new home in Heaven on Sunday, January 27, 2019. A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, February 2, 2019, 11:00AM at Trinity United Methodist Church Gymnasium. The Reverend H. Craig Hutto will officiate. Interment will be private.

Mrs. Powell was born December 31, 1942 in Lake City, Florida to Walter C. Lightsey and Dixie Seals Lightsey. She was the seventh of eight children and raised in a strong loving family in Clyattville, Georgia in “the best of times places—a Mayberry type town and time”. She graduated from Lowndes County High School in 1961, Andrew Junior College in 1963, and Valdosta State College in 1965.

Delores married Donnie Powell on August 14, 1966 at the United Methodist Church in Clyattville. They celebrated their 50^th Anniversary by visiting Disney World, her favorite vacation spot, with her children and their families. In order to get around the park, they drove electric scooters. There was a moment where her cane got stuck in the scooter and it bumped into a lady from a foreign country. Delores didn’t know what the lady said, but she didn’t think it was “Happy Anniversary!”

Delores taught elementary school in Albany, Georgia for 4 years. She chose a stay-at-home motherhood for about 1o years and then taught kindergarten at Trinity United Methodist Church until transitioning over to teach in a public elementary school in Warner Robins for twenty-three years. Delores had a positive impact on many students, who would speak kindly to her when they saw her in public. She happily retired from teaching in 2002.

Delores loved being a mother and rocking babies to sleep. She loved her children and they were the pride and joy of her life. In everything they did, whether school or church activities, Delores supported them. She loved being a mother-in-law to Natalie and Tommy.

Delores loved to read and walk around barefoot. She enjoyed making all sorts of goodies, her favorite being peanut butter balls. Delores was known to knit from time to time and would donate many of her creations. There were many times where she and her “sister teachers,” Sue McMahan, Carol Graham, and Faye Burnam would love to hold yard sales together. Delores always looked forward to her Lightsey Annual Family reunions. Nothing, however, would compare with spending time with her grand-darlings, Rylee and Haven, who called her O-Ma.

Delores was a member of Clyattville Methodist Church and in 1972 became a member of Trinity United Methodist Church, where she and her husband were long-time members of the “Becomers” Sunday School Class.

Delores was always good-hearted and charitable. She had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh. Delores never said a curse word, but if she ever said “I Suwannee,” everyone paid attention.

Delores is preceded in death by her parents; siblings, Willadean Boyd and her husband George, Laurie Bradley and her husband Bill, Sam Tully, Lawanna Bland and her husband Billy, and her sister-in-law Shirley Smith.

Delores is survived by her husband of 52 years, Donnie C. Powell; children, Richard (Natalie) Powell, Sharon (Tommy) Hammock, and Ben Powell; grandchildren, Rylee Jane and Haven Brook Hancock, known as her grand-darlings; siblings, Norma (Gayle) Stimson of Houston, TX, Walter Smith Lightsey of Selma, AL, and Joe Lightsey of Marion Junction, AL; and sister-in-law Elsa Tully of Blakely, GA.

All attenders are encouraged to wear Disney or Christmas attire to Saturday’s Memorial Service.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Trinity United Methodist Church Building Fund, 129 South Houston Road, Warner Robins, Georgia 31088.

PRAISE GOD!!! IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE!

Please sign the online register book at www.heritagemfh.com.

Heritage Memorial Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.