Florence Witt
Florence Bagley Witt, lifelong Chattanooga resident and civic leader, died at her home Tuesday, August 2, 2016. She was 96.
Florence was widely recognized for her major contributions to the religious and civil life of Chattanooga, including serving as president of the boards of Family and Children’s Services and of Girls Preparatory School and as the founding director of Hospice of Chattanooga.
For all her work outside the home, the focus of Florence’s life was her family. She met the man she was to marry, Raymond Witt, as he taught her Sunday School class at Centenary Methodist Church (now First-Centenary United Methodist Church.) They dated before he went off to Officer Candidate School for the U.S. Navy. In 1943, Witt returned to Chattanooga on a 10-day leave. She picked him up at the airport and by the time they reached her parents’ house on Sunset Road, they were engaged. Four days later, they were married at home and soon headed to San Diego where Raymond was based before he shipped out to the South Pacific.
They were happily married for 57 years until his death in July 2000. They had three children, Elder Witt Wellborn, Mary Alice Witt Wyatt and Evans Witt.
Florence was born in Chattanooga in 1920 at her parents’ home in the Fort Wood Apartments. She graduated from Greeta Wert School, then from Girls Preparatory School and from Sweet Briar College with a B.A. in English.
She returned to Chattanooga as the country and city prepared for World War II, and began her life of service as a canteen volunteer for the American Red Cross, greeting soldiers who came thorough the Chattanooga railroad station on troop trains before shipping overseas. “From that time on I was hooked on volunteering,” she said years later. “Once you’ve had the joy of working with people, you’re hooked.”
After the war, her volunteer work centered around the Junior League and Centenary, where she taught Sunday school. She also served as superintendent of children’s Sunday School, president of the Women’s Society of Christian Service and the Altar Guild, member of the Administrative Board, and Charge Lay Leader, only the second woman to do so at the time. When the Methodist Church overhauled its Sunday school materials in the early 1960s, she was deeply involved.
Florence’s first major foray into community services was the Florence Crittenden Home for Unwed Mothers, a place of shelter and support for unmarried pregnant young women. As president of its board in 1973, she led the effort to merge the home with the Traveler’s Aid Society and Family Services of Chattanooga to become Family and Children’s Services of Chattanooga. She became a member of the new agency’s board and served as its president from 1980-1982.
Her proudest accomplishment in the community was her work as a founding director of Hospice of Chattanooga. After looking after her own mother in her later years, Florence saw a major gap in the community’s support network, and worked with her good friend Frances Street Smith to start Hospice in 1981. She later served as its president.
She was an enthusiastic alumna of GPS, on whose board she served for two decades, including a term as its chair. A lifelong volunteer for the school, she was an effective fund-raiser and headed the board committee that planned and supervised construction of a major expansion of the GPS campus. She was honored as GPS Distinguished Alumna in 1980.
Over the years, Florence also served on the boards and committees of many community organizations, including the Junior League, American Cancer Society and Senior Neighbors.
In 1986, Florence’s work was recognized with the Distinguished Service Award from the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga, one of few women to be so honored separately from her husband, who had received the award in 1963. The award citation read in part:
“Throughout her life, her dedication to her family, to her church, to education and to numerous organizations serving otherwise unmet needs of people in our community has been outstanding. She carries a great capacity for intelligent, sensitive and strong leadership, with proper respect for the importance of detail and determination of follow-through that makes accomplishments possible.”
In a Chattanooga Times article many decades ago, Florence was quoted as saying, “In fact, I have no talent, period.” The Times was definite in its assessment of that statement, noting that “it will cause an uprising of dissent from a whole city full of people who know better.”
She is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Jeanne and Charlie Bagley Jr.; her sister-in-law, Mary Alice Turney; her three children – Evans (Amy Sabrin), Mary Alice (Jim Wyatt) and Elder (Stanley Wellborn); four grandchildren – Rachel Wellborn (Quincy Anderson), Mark Wellborn (Pam Wye), Jonathan Wellborn (Stephanie Heffernan), Lucy Witt (John Huisman); and two great-grandchildren – Mason Wellborn and Florence Blake Wellborn. She was predeceased by her husband Raymond B. Witt Jr.; her sister Margaret Ann McMenemy; her sister-in-law Gertrude Hellmann; and her great-grandson Sterling Witt Wellborn.
Spending the final years of her life at home was made possible by many marvelous caregivers including Lois Scott, Meta Pope, Theresa Young, Fannie Stanton, Rosemarie Hunter, Mary Hawthorne, Clara Smith, Barbara Andrulis, Delores Walker, Cynthia Baggett, Yolanda Lightbourne and Emmaly Hughes. And that home was kept just as she wished by Sylvia Fausch.
Hospice of Chattanooga was central to making the final months of Florence’s life as comfortable as possible, with special efforts by Hospice staff Cheryl Brewer, Pam Billingsley, Christy Bonner and Pat Flowers.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Hospice of Chattanooga, 4411 Oakwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37416.
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 9, at First Centenary United Methodist Church. The family will receive friends from 1-2 p.m. on Tuesday prior to the service.
A private family burial will follow at Forest Hills Cemetery.
Visit www.heritagechattanooga.com to share words of comfort to the family.
Arrangements are by Heritage Funeral Home, East Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, Tn. 37421.