Harold M. Petty
It is with a heavy heart, that I am sharing with you that my Dad, Harold M. Petty, Sr., 83, ended his battle with cancer on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, and accepted his calling to join our Lord and Savior in heaven.
Harold was born on Dec. 25, 1940, to Franklin Grundy and Pauline Gallaher Petty at his paternal grandparent’s home in Scottsboro, Al., while his family was visiting from Chattanooga for the Christmas holidays.
Harold grew up in the Chattanooga/Rossville area, where he met the love of his life, Brenda Faye Childress, also a native of the area. They started dating at the age of 13 and married in Ringgold, on Aug. 24, 1958. Shortly after their marriage, Harold and Brenda moved to Atlanta where he finished school, started his family and began a career in retail at the W.T. Grant Co. He made a career change to the hospitality industry (which includes lodging and food service) in the early 70’s enabling him to include and educate his children and grandchildren in good work ethics with on-the-job training. In the late 80’s, he made his way back to Rossville, where he worked locally as Director of Operations at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Owner/Operator of Roy’s Grill, Food Service through Sodexo at McCallie School which led to his current employment at CHI Memorial Hospital in Fort Oglethorpe as a Food Service Director.
Harold had been an active member of the Church of Christ since 1963 when he was baptized at the Campus View Church of Christ in Athens, Ga. In the late 60s, he was transferred to Stokes County, NC where the closest Church of Christ was located close to an hour away. He banded with seven other families that were making the same trip to attend church and they founded the South Stokes Church of Christ in King, NC. In the late 80s, he moved back to Rossville, changing his membership to the Rossville Church of Christ. He is also a member of the Freemasons.
Harold has always been a caring, kind-hearted family man with a great personality and a fun-loving sense of humor, some might say a little mischievous. In his younger years, he coached Little League Baseball, and he assisted his wife in her leadership role as Girl Scout Leader by being available to do whatever was needed from driving loads of girls to events and helping them earn badges to teaching them how to camp. He enjoyed spending time with family, cookouts, mowing his grass, working on his back porch, pulling for the Georgia Bulldogs (GO DAWGS!) and watching NASCAR races with his son. He was loved and will be missed so much.
Harold was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers, Charles, Lamar and James Petty and a granddaughter, Gina Atkins.
Surviving are his wife, Brenda; his fur-baby and best friend, Sophie; his children, Karen Petty of Stephens City, Va.; Mark and Kelly Morrison Petty of Rossville; three grandchildren, Todd Mitchell of Stephens City, Va., Brent and Jennifer Gibson Petty of Claxton, Ga. and Chrissy and Spencer Hergert of Lingle, Wy.; 11 great-grandchildren, Alexis and Phillip Peer of Inwood, WV; Cash and Cody Cox of Front Royal, Va.; Jazmyn, Elijah and Jaxon Mitchell of Stephens City, Va.; Emily and Avery Petty of Claxton, Ga., and Katie, Jordan and Amon Napier of Lingle, Wy.; five great-great-grandchildren, Blake and Blair Floryancic and Eden, Ellee and Emersen Peer of Inwood, WV; a sister, Charlotte Mullins of Rossville, and many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.
Condolences may be shared with the Petty family by visiting www.lane-southcrestchapel.com.
Funeral services will be held Friday at noon at the Rossville Church of Christ with Minister Jack James officiating. Mr. Petty will Lie in State at the Church from 10 a.m.-noon.
A private interment will be in the Tennessee-Georgia Memorial Park.
The family will receive friends on Thursday from 5-8 p.m. at the South Crest Chapel of Lane Funeral Home and Crematory at the end of historic Missionary Ridge, Rossville.