Loreen Atkins
Services for Loreen Thompson Atkins, 82, will be on Saturday, March 2, 2024, at Stanley United Methodist Church, 501 Dodson Ave., Chattanooga, Tn. 37404. The family will receive condolences from 1 p.m., and the funeral will begin at 2 p.m.
The retired educator died peacefully at home in Chattanooga on February 8, 2024.
She was born May 4, 1941, in Flint, Mi. She attended elementary school in Cincinnati, and Second District Junior High on Chattanooga’s old West Side. She was valedictorian of the Howard High School Class of 1958 and graduated from Knoxville College in 1962. She later received a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Loreen was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
She began her career as a teacher at Alton Park Junior High in 1962, and later became a guidance counselor and assistant principal. She was the founding principal of East Side Day School, which enabled expectant mothers to continue their studies before returning to their original high school to graduate. She always visited her mothers and their newborns in the hospital. She retired after more than 30 years of service in the Chattanooga Public Schools in 1994.
She continued to head the board of the Maurice Kirby Daycare Center on Howard High’s campus until her death.
A member of Stanley Church from the time her parents Phillip and Mary W. Thompson returned to Chattanooga in 1952, as an adult she served various times as chair of its Church Council (trustees), chapter president of United Methodist Women, delegate to the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church, and head of Stanley’s Pastor-Parish Relations committee. She was chairwoman of Stanley’s Finance Committee when she died.
She married the now-late John R. (“Coach”) Atkins in 1963. Her survivors include their son Brian L. Atkins, of Chattanooga, and daughter Lauren De Veaux (Charles), of Brooklyn, New York. Her grandchildren are Brittany, Jasmon, Ashley, Jordan, and Brooklin Atkins, as well as Amari De Veaux. She also leaves six great-grandchildren, several nieces and nephews and their families, two siblings Pearl and Morris Thompson, and various cousins.
Her brothers, Phillip A. and Allan R. Thompson died before her.
She was a light in the life of many as she passed this way, and of all who loved her.
In lieu of flowers, she requested that donations be made to Stanley United Methodist Church.
Arrangements are by John P. Franklin Funeral Home, 1101 Dodds Ave., 423 622-9995.