Mrs. Mary Ruth Vaden, age 90, of Warthen, died on Thursday, January 7, 2021, at the Heritage Inn in Sandersville. Graveside funeral services will be held at 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, January 10, at the Union Baptist Church Cemetery near Warthen. Reverend David Self and Maura Vaden Peavy will officiate. Honorary pallbearers will be Tyler Vaden, Caleb Vaden, Ryan Vaden, Traci Vaden, Randy Vaden, and Erin Vaden.
Mary Ruth was born in Harriman, Tennessee, the daughter of the late Floyd Birdwell Johnston and the late Laura Ova Gladys Adkins. She was a member of Ball Road Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Mary Ruth grew up in the traditional missionary Baptist faith. She was active in church activities all her life, serving in leadership roles in many activities.
Mary Ruth was the daughter of “Original Homesteaders” brought to the Cumberland Plateau near Crossville, Tennessee during the Great Depression, through the efforts of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt. After marrying Solen J. Vaden, she was first a housewife and mother, and later worked in the local textile mill, as well as with her husband in machine shops to help pay for their children’s education. Mary Ruth regarded her greatest accomplishment the expectation that through the positive lives of her children, the world would be a better place.
Survivors are her daughter, Thea Angela Vaden Mullin and her husband Terry of Watkinsville; three sons, Chris Vaden and his wife Nan of Warthen, Joel Anthony Vaden and his wife Jackie of Sweet Water, Tennessee, and Philip Daryl Vaden and his wife Karen of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee; nine grandchildren, Dr. Traci Vaden, Maura Peavy, Erin Vaden, Ian Benson, Tyler Vaden, Ryan Vaden, Caleb Vaden, Natalie Vaden, and Ethan Vaden; and nine great-grandchildren, Hadley Vaden, Maverick Vaden, George Vaden, Henry Vaden, Benjamin Vaden, Savannah Peavy, Hawke Vaden, Bransen Vaden, and Wylder Cate Vaden.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, P.O. Box 1818, Memphis, Tennessee, 38101-9903 or to the Golden Harvest Food Bank, 3310 Commerce Drive, Augusta, Georgia 30909.
May and Smith Funeral Directors in Sandersville is in charge of the arrangements.