Ann Nelms

Funeral services for Ann (Anna Amelia Augusta) Owen Nelms, age 91 of Cookeville and formerly of Nashville, will be held Wednesday, July 3 at 12:00 p.m. at Spring Hill Funeral Home in Nashville. Interment will follow in Spring Hill Cemetery. Dr. Jonathan Nelms of Covenant Church, Cookeville will officiate and Patricia Lyons of Savannah, Georgia will share family insights. Mrs. Nelms's family will receive friends Tuesday, July 2 from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the Cookeville Chapel of Hooper-Huddleston & Horner Funeral Home and again on Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. until service time at Spring Hill Funeral Home. Mrs. Nelms died Friday, June 28, 2019 at Cookeville Regional Medical Center. She was born Saturday, December 31, 1927 on Frenchman Hill, Mount Pleasant, Tennessee to the late William Jay and Anna Amelia Augusta Wagner Owen. She was a 1945 graduate of Hay Long High School, Maury County, Tennessee. After high school Mrs. Nelms moved to Chicago to work. While living there with her sister Ruby, Ann met Marion DeLoy Nelms, a World War II veteran, who had gone to Chicago to study machine design after being discharged from the US Navy. They met at Sunday School, fell in love, and were married on February 4, 1950 at First Baptist Church, Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee. Ann and DeLoy lived in Owensboro, Kentucky and Columbia, Tennessee before settling in Nashville. While Deloy worked at the Old Hickory DuPont Plant, Ann worked in various jobs while raising their family. She particularly enjoyed teaching preschool each day in the daycare at Inglewood Baptist Church. Ann and DeLoy dedicated their time to the music and childcare ministries at Inglewood Baptist where DeLoy served as a deacon. The Nelms also enjoyed volunteering as car hosts with the Tennessee Central Railway Museum and the DuPont Fun with Science program. They traveled to all 48 contiguous states and found great joy riding trains, vacationing along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and camping in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, especially Cades Cove. Ann had a close loving relationship with her five sisters: Ruby, Flucy, Sadie, Jo, and Billiej. Their "sister trips" were always a time of great joy, hardy laughs, and fierce competition around the card table. Family holidays, especially Christmas at her mother's house, were the highlight of Ann's yearly activities. Ann and DeLoy moved to Cookeville in 2014 and joined the fellowship of Covenant Church. Her mind remained sharp and she wrote many short stories of her childhood and family memories. Ann kept meticulous notes and photographs of her travels and family occasions. She maintained a positive and grateful attitude until the day she died. She took dialysis at DaVita three days a week for the past 33 months and never missed a treatment. Ann felt called to encourage the other patients and staff at DaVita and was always quick with a joke and smile whenever she was there. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her sisters, Ruby Owens, Florence (Artis) Thompson, Sadie Carr, Gladys Josephine (Amos) Davidson, and Billiej (Wayne) Boshers. She is survived by her son, Dr. Jonathan Nelms and wife Glenda of Cookeville; daughters, Cynthia Lynn Nelms of Mobile, AL and Susan Murray Plank of Bois D'Arc, MO; grandsons, Nathanael Nelms and John Philip Nelms; nieces and nephew, Nancy Davidson, Art (Ellen) Thompson, Marsha (James) Woody, and Patti (Patrick) Lyons; and family friend Julie Hornady. Nathanael Nelms, John Philip Nelms, James Woody, Art Thompson, Ethan Breeding, and Neal Marcum will serve as pallbearers. Memorial contributions may be made to Covenant Church, 354 S. Jefferson Ave., Cookeville, TN 38501.