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PAGE 10A-THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL THURSDAY. DECEMBER 12,2019
Obituaries
Raymond Ivo "Ray” Bruttomesso
Donald H. Curtis
Ray Ronald Hooper
HOSCHTON — Raymond Ivo “Ray” Bruttomes-
so, 85, Hoschton, passed away November 30, 2019.
He was born in Tor-
rington, Conn, to the late
Samuel and Louise Ciri-
ello Bruttomesso. He re
ceived a BS in account
ing from The College
of the Holy Cross, an
MBA from the Wharton
School of the Universi
ty of Pennsylvania and a
JD from Boston College
Law School. The first in
his family to attend col
lege, he earned scholar
ships to each institution enabling him to attend. He
was always grateful for his opportunities, showing it
by funding scholarships to help students attend The
College of the Holy Cross and Catholic grade school
in Torrington, Conn.
He married Kathleen McMahon also from Torrin-
ton and had five children with her as he built a ca
reer in corporate law and taxation living primarily
in the Chicago area and West Hartford, Conn. Af
ter his marriage ended, he met and married Susie
Young, relocating to Atlanta where he opened a tax
and financial planning practice working with indi
viduals and small businesses. He loved his work and
continued practicing until last year. He often taught
college classes in accounting, management and fi
nancial planning and was happiest when he could
help an individual learn how to improve his financial
situation. He strove to practice quiet acts of charity,
looking for ways to help people achieve their full
potential as others had helped him.
He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Susan “Su
sie” Young Bruttomesso; five children, Raymond
Jr. (Patricia), Cheryl (Debra Clarke), Robert (Kim
Eugair), Charles (Kathleen) and Douglas (Wendy);
16 grandchildren; two brothers, Roger (Barbara) and
Samuel (Lucy); and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral Mass: Friday, December 6, 2019 at
11:30 a.m. at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, 6439
Spout Springs Rd., Flowery Branch, Ga. 30542. Fa
ther Eric Hill will officiate.
Family to receive friends: Friday, December 6,
2019 prior to the mass in the Narthex. Burial will
be private.
In lieu of flowers the family requests that me
morial contributions be made to the Raymond I.
Bruttomesso Scholarship Fund at The College of
the Holy Cross, One College St., Worcester, Mass.
01610 or to St. Vincent de Paul Society at Prince
of Peace Catholic Church, 6439 Spout Springs Rd.,
Flowery Branch, Ga. 30542.
Memorial Park South Funeral Home, 4121 Falcon
Pkwy., Flowery Branch, Ga. 30542, is in charge of
arrangements. Send on-line condolences to www.
memorialpaikfuneralhomes.com.
Published by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
Week of December 8-14
Johnny Childs
JEFFERSON — Johnny Childs, 67, Jefferson, en
tered into rest Thursday, December 5,2019.
Mr. Childs was bom in
Commerce, a son of the
late George Doris Childs
and Reba Bowles Childs of
Jefferson. Mr. Childs was a
member of the Arcade Fire
Department for 24 years, a
member of the Jefferson
Rescue, the Georgia Fire
Fighters Association and
was employed with the
City of Jefferson Water
Department. In addition
to his father, Mr. Childs is
preceded in death by a son, Chris Childs.
Survivors, in addition to his mother, are his wife, Judy
Mathis Childs, Jefferson; two sons, Robby Childs, and
his wife Melissa, Jefferson, and Jeff Childs, and his
wife Anna, Winder; two sisters, Estelle Wells, and her
husband Joe, Jefferson, and Pat Smith, and her husband
Randall, Danielsville; one brother, Jack Childs, and his
wife Elaine, Jefferson; seven grandchildren, Hannah
Christensen, Caleb Childs, Madison Childs, Kelsey
Childs, Austin Childs, Kristen Childs and Juliette Few-
is; and three great-grandchildren, Kaley, Zoey and Jax-
son Christensen also survive.
Funeral service: Tuesday, December 10, 2019 at
11 a.m. from the Jefferson Civic Center, 65 Kissam St.,
Jefferson, with the Rev. Bill Bennett officiating with
burial to follow in Woodbine Cemetery, Jefferson, com
plete with firelighter honors.
Family to receive friends: Monday, December 9,2019
from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4-8 p.m. at Evans Funeral
Home.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in memo
ry of Johnny Childs to the Changed Fives Campaign at
www.nextmng.org.
Evans Funeral Home, Inc., 1350 Winder Hwy., Jeffer
son, Ga., 706-367-5467. Online condolences at www.
evansfuneralhomeinc.com.
Published by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
Week of December 8-14
JEFFERSON — Donald H. Curtis, 97, Jefferson,
passed away Sunday, December 1, 2019.
Donald retired after 32 years from AT&T in Florida.
He was heavily active with the Shriners for 50 years
in Florida and North Carolina. He was the Shriners
Club president in Franklin, North Carolina in 2000.
He was a Mason for 75 years in Florida and North
Carolina. Donald was a Navy veteran of WWII.
Survivors include his wife, Joan, of 28 years; son,
Bruce Curtis, Florida; daughter, Donna Heck and late
husband Bob, Florida; step-daughter, Elizabeth Too-
hill, Wisconsin; brother, Feo Curtis and wife Fidia,
Texas; cousin, Pat Gill and late husband Kenneth, Il
linois; grandchildren, Brent Famb and wife Terri, and
Brian McGee; great-grandchildren, Brandon, Dylan,
Tommy and Troy; step-grandchildren, Jennifer, Joan-
ie, Jamie, Eddie, Alexia, Timothy and Shannon;
step-great-grandchildren, Juny, Christian, Isaiah, Ste
phen Jr., Dominque, Alexandria, Kayen and Gavin;
and a host of other relatives.
Donald is preceded in death by his first wife, Vir
ginia Rotramel; his parents; and sister, Elanor.
Donations can be made to St. Mary’s Home Hos
pice of Athens.
Family to receive friends: Saturday December 7,
2019 at 1 p.m. at Fawson Funeral Home Chapel.
Memorial service: Saturday, December 7, 2019 at
2 p.m. at Fawson Funeral Home Chapel. Nick Vip-
perman will be officiating.
Funeral arrangements by Fawson Funeral Home,
4532 Hwy. 53, Hoschton, Ga. 30548, www.lawsonfu-
neralhome.org, 706-654-0966.
Published by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
Week of December 8-14
James "Jim” Harold Harwell
COMMERCE — James “Jim” Harold Harwell, 81,
Commerce, died Sunday, December 8, 2019 at his
residence.
Mr. Harwell was born in Athens to the late William
Bill and Addie Sue Mize Harwell. He was a member
of New Salem United Methodist Church and was re
tired from Windstream with 37 years of service.
Mr. Harwell is survived by his wife, Shirley Ann
Brown Harwell, Commerce; son, Greg Harwell, Su-
wanee; sister, Annie Sue Brooks, Sebring, Fla.; broth
er, George Harwell, Nicholson; two grandchildren;
and four great-grandchildren.
Funeral service: Wednesday, December 11, 2019
at 2 p.m. in the chapel of Fittle-Ward Funeral Home
with Mark Fitzpatrick officiating. Interment will fol
low in Jackson Memorial Gardens.
Family to receive friends: Tuesday, December 10,
2019 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.
Fittle-Ward Funeral Home, Commerce, is in charge
of arrangements.
Published by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
Week of December 8-14
Tsgt. Terry C. Holcomb
COFBERT — Tsgt. Terry C. Holcomb, 90, of Col
bert, died on Thursday, December 5, 2019.
A native of West Vir
ginia, Terry attended East
Fairmont High School
and was the son of the
late William and Ger
trude Atkinson Holcomb.
He served his country for
over 20 years as a tech
sergeant in the United
States Air Force. During
Sgt. Holcomb’s military
service, he was in support
groups from Hunter Air
Force Base in Savannah
and from Guam during the Korean War. He spent 24
months in Vietnam as a flight engineer and three years
in the Philippines. He and his family lived in several
states, and he also spent a year in Thule AFB, Green
land.
His hobbies over the years have been hunting, fish
ing, gardening, wood working with machine and hand
carving.
Along with his parents. Terry was preceded in death
by his daughter, Sandra Denise Holcomb; brother,
John W. Holcomb; and two sisters, Ernestine Windon
and Jereleen Stutler.
He is survived by his wife, Edna O. Holcomb, Col
bert; three children, David C. (Barbara) Holcomb,
West Point, Utah; Michael T. (Susan) Holcomb, Hull;
and Janet H. (Kurk) Fance, Maxeys; sister Kathleen
(Don) Kus, King’s Mountain, North Carolina; 12
grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and several
nieces and nephews.
Funeral service: Sunday, December 8, 2019 at
3 p.m. at Ford and Stephens, Danielsville Chapel.
Interment will follow the funeral service at Daniels
ville Memorial Gardens. Grandsons and nephews will
serve as pallbearers.
Family to receive friends: Sunday, December 8,
2019 from 1 p.m. until service time at the funeral
home.
Ford and Stephens Funeral Home, Danielsville, is
in charge of arrangements, www.lordandstephens.
com.
Published by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
Week of December 8-14
ILA — Ray Ronald Hooper, 79, Ila, died on Decem
ber 6, 2019.
Mr. Hooper was a son of the late
George William Hooper Sr. and Fela
Fortner Hooper. In addition to his
parents, he was preceded in death
by his brother, George William Hooper Jr.; and two
half-brothers, Kenneth and Cecil Breedlove.
Mr. Hooper is survived by his loving wife of 50 years,
Mary Brown Hooper. In addition to his wife, left to
cherish his memory is his daughter, Jennifer Shugart;
son-in-law, Jon Shugart; three grandchildren, Jessica
Heixing, Sam and Eli Shugart; one sister, Finda Wil
liamson; brother-in-law, Kenneth Williamson; and nu
merous nieces and nephews.
Mr. Hooper was a deacon for 25 year's at Union Bap
tist Church where he also served as assistant choir di
rector and taught Sunday School. He served in the Unit
ed States Navy. He enjoyed turkey and deer hunting.
Funeral service: Sunday, December 8, 2019 at 1 p.m.
at Ford and Stephens, Danielsville. Interment will fol
low at Union Baptist Church.
Visitation: Saturday, December 7, 2019 from 6 until
8 p.m. at the funeral home for family and friends.
Ford and Stephens, Danielsville, 963, Hwy. 98 East,
Danielsville, Ga. 30633 is in charge of arrangements.
www.lordandstephens.com.
Published by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
Week of December 8-14
Samuel Black Linhart
Samuel Black Finhart, 87, died November 23,2019.
In the end, we all become stories; Sam has a good
one.
He rode a horse named
Spook into the Alpine Val
leys of Colorado’s Rocky
Mountains. He rappelled
into the deep caverns of
Guerrero’s Sierra Madre
del Sur. He fished for
brook flout in clear moun
tain streams and crappie
in Piedmont rivers. He
hiked in high meadows
and kayaked in low coun
fly swamps. He loved his
family and he was happy.
But stories are made good by the details revealed in
them. Here is the rest of Sam’s stoiy:
Sam was born in Pittsburgh, Penn, where he grew up
as a self-professed “Bug Boy.” Enrolling at the Uni
versity of Pittsburgh with the intention of becoming
an entomologist, he fell under the spell of the famous
herpetologist, M. Graham Netting, and wrangled a part-
time job at the Carnegie Museum where Netting was
curator of reptiles and amphibians. Shortly after gradu
ating from Pitt in 1955 with a degree in Zoology and a
new job at the museum, Sam received his draft notice.
Oblivious to global politics and in haste to get back to
his beloved museum, he enlisted at the table with the
shortest line. Only after signing with the 24th Infantry
Division did he learn that their line was short because
they were headed for the Korean DMZ and he was to
be the unit’s quartermaster supply officer. Undaunted,
Sam decided he would also be the unit’s resident herpe
tologist. Using pantomime along with the few Korean
words he’d learned, Sam engaged the help of local vil
lage boys by giving stream-side herpetology lectures,
demos on using surplus Anny-issued socks to protect
any discoveries, and the promise of a finders fee for any
reptile or amphibian filled sock delivered to him at the
Army base. No young boy on any continent could resist
an offer like that and by the time of Sam’s discharge
in 1957, he and the boys had found 121 reptiles and
amphibians for the Carnegie Museum’s herpetology
collection.
Sam did not follow his samples back to the museum
for a career in herpetology, but instead entered gradu
ate school at Cornell University (Wildlife Management,
1961), and took a job with New York State’s Depart
ment of Conservation. The wildlife control methods he
devised in the fields and river valleys of southwestern
New York from 1957 to 1964 would be the recurring
theme of his career as a biologist for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service’s Denver Wildlife Research Center
(1964-1990) and the University of Georgia’s Southeast
ern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (1990-2000).
Of all his research projects, Sam spoke most often of
the two year's he spent studying vampire bats in Mexico
under a grant from the U.S. Agency for International
Development. Sam and his colleagues, Dick Burns and
Raul Flores Crespo, found and observed colonies of
vampire bats roosting in the deep caverns of the Sierra
Madre del Sur. The rabies control methods they devised
from these observations are still in use in Fatin Amer
ica.
When Sam finally retired in 2000, he and his wife
Jean built a house near Comer in oak-hickory woods
crossed by a small tributary of the Broad River. Sam
once again became a “Bug Boy.”
He was certified as an instructor with Georgia’s Adopt
A Stream program and loved to demonstrate the won
ders to be found by turning over a rock while standing
in a stream bed. He served as chair and co-chair of the
Broad River Watershed Association and wrote grants to
fund their water quality programs. In 2006-2007, he and
UGA forester Dudley Hartel organized a water quality
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