Albertine Epps

Funeral services for Albertine (Tine) Epps, 87, of Cookeville, will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, January 17 at Cookeville First Baptist Church with Rev. Charlie Hutchison and Chuck Overton officiating. Interment will follow at 3 p.m. EST at Foster Cemetery in Sweetwater, TN. The family will receive friends Monday from 5 – 8 p.m. at the Cookeville Chapel of Hooper Huddleston and Horner Funeral Home and again Tuesday from 9 – 10 a.m. at the church. She passed away Monday, January 9, 2017 at Vanderbilt University Hospital from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. She was born May 30, 1929 in Niota, TN to the late Albert Louis and Emma Wilson Kyker. Albertine was a beloved wife and mother known for her many talents, her servant's heart, and her determined "can do" attitude. She was born and raised in Niota, TN, where as a teen she worked at Niota Textiles sock factory. She attended nursing school in Memphis, then met Byron the day she arrived at Union University to study and work as school nurse. They were married a year later. (Rumor has it that Byron must have had a lot of health issues because he was spending an awful lot of time at the infirmary.) After their graduation, she moved with her husband to attend Southwestern Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, TX where she studied organ and piano while working at hospitals and serving as assistant director of nursing services at Cook Memorial Hospital Center for Children in Fort Worth. In 1952, she and her husband were commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention Home Missions Board to serve as home missionaries, planting churches in the northern United States. Albertine worked as a nurse while serving beside her husband in ministry in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. It was in Wisconsin that their three children were born within just over three years' time. In 1974, they moved to West Tennessee and in 1977 to Cookeville, where Byron served on staff at First Baptist Church. In Cookeville, Albertine furthered her own education while helping to establish the School of Nursing at Tennessee Technological University. In 1986, she and Byron moved to Jackson, where she worked as a nurse and taught at Union University, her alma mater. They subsequently returned to the mission field in Wisconsin, where she continued to serve in hospitals and nursing homes. In 1998, they retired and moved back to Cookeville, TN where Albertine took on many roles in local churches. She played piano and organ, sang in choirs, taught various age groups, served meals, and did anything else that was a needed service. In addition to her career and ministry to churches and communities, she served her own family well. And besides performing the traditional roles of cooking, cleaning, gardening, and canning for the family, she designed and sewed much of the family's clothing, including wedding apparel for herself and her two daughters. Whether regarding clothing, tapestries, food, floral arrangements, or furniture, she will be remembered for frequently seeing beautiful things and remarking, "I could make that!" And she could. She also skillfully served in place of or beside a midwife for the homebirths of seven of the eight of her U.S. born children. She continued to minister as wife, mother, and grandmother, as well as church and community servant until the time of her death. In fact, after the automobile accident that eventually took her life, she was more concerned that everyone else in the car was fine than she was about her own pain and discomfort. She will be remembered for her love, good humor, wisdom, adventurous spirit, and passionate service to others. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by an infant sister, Myrtle Kyker; and sister, Francis Kyker Dickson. She is survived by her husband of 63 years, Byron R. Epps, who she married June 2, 1953; two daughters and sons-in-law, Emily and David Varela of Jackson County, TN, Karen and Bob Miller of Huntsville, TX; son, David Epps of Hachita, NM; 12 grandchildren, Armando, Briana, Victor, Isabel, Rebeka, Moshe, Natanyah, and Giliyah Varela of Jackson County, Roshelle and Keaton Epps of Cortez, CO, and Dima and Desirae Miller of Huntsville, TX. Family and friends will serve as pallbearers.