Constance "Connie" Rozelle Farris

COOKEVILLE CHAPEL - Constance (“Connie”) Rozelle Farris passed away February 17, 2025, at Alive Hospice in Nashville, Tennessee, on what would have been her father’s 103rd birthday.

Connie was born on Father’s Day in Cookeville, Tennessee, on June 17, 1956, to William Clay and Lena Mae Wright Farris, and was raised on their farm in Cookeville. In her youth, she helped her family operate restaurants at the Algood and Crossville Stockyards. She earned a diploma from Putnam County Senior High School as well as a Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology from Tennessee Technological University.

She had a passion for historic preservation. In 1984, her project narrative titled “Progress Doomed Buffalo Valley” was published in the Herald-Citizen. She then joined local historians in preserving the Cookeville Depot and assisted for two years as secretary in the formation of the Friends of the Depot board, eventually serving as the first director of the Cookeville Depot Museum. She assisted with the admission nominations for both the town of Liberty, Tennessee, and the Cookeville Depot to the National Register of Historic Places, and wrote additional narratives titled “A Brief History of Liberty, Tennessee: Settlement, Trade Center, Rural Community, 1800-1980,” and “The Railroad’s Impact on Putnam County.”

Connie then pursued a twenty-year career in local and state government administration while raising her three children. During her retirement she raised her granddaughter, Adriana. Later, she was accredited in grant writing and forming nonprofit organizations helping numerous clients achieve their business goals.

Connie’s hobbies included a love of music, especially Gregg Allman, and spending time with her dog, Gypsy. She was a student of genealogy and the caretaker of her family’s ancestral records, of which she and her mother carefully researched. She partnered with other descendants of Cookeville’s Peekville community to dedicate incorporated road signs for the location. She volunteered at the Putnam County Archives by submitting family veteran photos and service records. Most recently, Connie was an advocate for identifying and preserving at-risk cemetery sites in Tennessee, even successfully rerouting water and sewer lines and road expansion away from a historic cemetery when encroached upon by development. She volunteered to represent the interest of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) as a site manager in the preservation efforts of the Rock House in Sparta, Tennessee, and was notably named the recipient of an Historic Preservation Recognition Award from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution on November 11, 2024. In December of 2024, the DAR accepted her as a candidate for the Women in American History Award, of which she will be posthumously awarded a certificate and medal in March, 2025. She was also an instrumental member of the planning committee for her high school class of 1974 reunion last year to celebrate their 50th year.

Connie was preceded in death by her parents Clay and Lena Farris, her sister, Linda Farmer, and her brothers-in- law, Terry Farmer and Bobby Kernea.

She is survived by family (mostly of Cookeville): her aunts Irene Agee, Rozelle Farris, and Wyndoline Farris, her sister Myra Kernea, her brother Mark (Mary) Farris, her son Joseph (Catherine) Wallace, her daughters Sarah Wallace (Silver Point, Tennessee), and Amanda Wallace, her grandchildren Adriana Wallace, Alex Williams, Mallory Williams, Ian Williams, and Aniya Wallace, special friends Ginny Poteet, Marcia Cox, and Jim Sircy, and an extended family of loving cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends.

A burial service is scheduled for Monday, February 24, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. at the Cunningham Cemetery located at 1855 Cunningham Road, Cookeville, Tennessee. A Celebration of Life will follow at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorial check contributions may be made payable to the Rock House Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and sent to the attention of Donna Hamilton at 2510 Randolph Road, Cookeville, Tennessee 38506.

Hooper Huddleston & Horner Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. (931)526-6111. You may share your thoughts and memories at www.hhhfunerals.com.