March 5, 1920 –  September 20, 2014  Funeral Services for Georgia Lee Wilkerson, 94, will be held Friday, September 26, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. at Meador Funeral Home Chapel with Ricky Patterson and Mike Bentley officiating. Interment will follow at Oakwood Cemetery, Whitesboro, Texas. Visitation will be Thursday, September 25, 2014 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at the funeral home. She died Saturday, September 20, 2014 at Whitesboro Health & Rehabilitation. She was born March 5, 1920 to Asa and Winona (Muncrief) Turner in Bromide, Oklahoma, during a snowstorm. She was the oldest of three daughters in a hard-working farm family, with lots of cousins nearby. She started school a year early because she already knew how to read, and attended school at Plainview through eighth grade. Then Georgia Lee rode a horse to high school in Bromide, Oklahoma, for three years before moving to Wapanucka her senior year. She graduated from Wapanucka High School in 1937, and the family bought a new Model T that year. She always wanted to be a teacher and enrolled at East Central State College in Ada, Oklahoma to pursue that goal. After only a semester, however, she had to drop out for health reasons, and was not able to return to school until 1940. She took a full-load, baby sat to earn money, and shared a room at a boardinghouse with three other girls.
In 1942, a year short of certification, Georgia Lee was offered her first teaching job—for the grand amount of $100 per month—to teach grades 1-8 in a one-room school in Bellwood, Oklahoma. She finished her college courses the following summer—and met a fiddle-player named Butch Bray. He went to California to work in the shipyards, and three years later, after many letters and calls, Georgia Lee went out to California for the summer of 1945, and they married. They returned to Oklahoma and she went back to teaching. Georgia Lee also decided to go back to college for certification in Home Economics. Georgia Lee became a young widow in 1952, when Butch died from cancer. She continued to teach through that time, and spent a lot of time with family, especially spoiling her first niece, Debbie.
Georgia Lee also spent time with an older couple in the community, friends met through square dances and the men’s love of fiddles. They introduced Georgia Lee to a bachelor who had recently bought a nearby farm. He was retired from the Air Force and had never married. Ted Wilkerson and Georgia Lee met in March of 1955; Ted proposed within two weeks, and they married May 20, 1955. She became a farm wife and took some time off from teaching. She gardened, drove the hay truck, milked, fed chickens and cows, etc. They were blessed with a son, Glen Dale, in 1958, and a daughter, Glenda Lee, in 1960. Georgia Lee returned to teaching in 1966. Mrs. Wilkerson spent over 20 years in various classrooms of Bromide, Choctaw, Mill Creek, Reagan, Custer City, Ponotoc, Olney, and Wapanucka, Oklahoma. The only other job she ever had was at Tinker Air Force Base one summer counting nuts, bolts, and washers. It paid more, but she decided she “wasn’t cut out for that.”
The Wilkersons moved to Whitesboro in 1970, built a new house, and became active in the North Union Street Church of Christ. Ted worked in real estate and farmed a little. Georgia Lee took a job with Collinsville ISD in 1972, teaching 5th grade there until she retired in 1986. She had a passion for teaching and her students and even after retiring, she still considered them, “her kids”.
In August of 1974, Ted Wilkerson died of cancer, leaving Georgia Lee a widow again—this time with two teenagers. She stayed busy, with school and her family—kids’ activities and checking on her own parents. Glenda married in 1980, and Georgia Lee became Grandmother to Bonnie, a special needs child, in 1983. After she retired, she spent a lot of time caring for Bonnie, taking her to physical therapy and McDonald’s. Georgia Lee also stayed involved in church; she was in charge of funeral meals for 20-25 years and taught Sunday school and VBS, as well as keeping everyone supplied with her special pickles and other treats. She also kept on teaching as a substitute teacher at Collinsville, Whitesboro, Tioga, and S&S until the age of 80.
She became Grandmother to Wendy, Cameron, and Turner. Cameron also was a special needs child and Grandmother was a huge help. Cameron died in an accident in 1998. Grandmother stayed busy going to the other grandkids activities—ball games, powerlifting meets, plays, and Christmas programs, stock shows, and vacations. She became Grandmother to all the grandkids friends and teachers too. Georgia Lee enjoyed sewing, shopping, reading, crocheting, gardening, cooking, crafts, and painting. She was still gardening, sewing her own clothes, crocheting afghans and scarves, and cooking up a storm until recently when her health declined. She was loved by all who knew her.
She is survived by her daughter, Glenda Coulson and husband, Sandy of Whitesboro; son, Glen Wilkerson of Arlington; granddaughters: Bonnie Coulson; Wendy Crow and husband, James; grandson, Turner Coulson; great-grandson, Cameron Crow; and sister, Margia Thurmond of Dallas, Texas.
Pallbearers will be Turner Coulson, James Crow, Michael Goodwin, Joey McAden, Colten Johnson, and Daniel Swindle.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Asa and Winona Turner; first husband, Butch Bray; husband, Ted Wilkerson; sister, Ruby Sewell; and grandson, Cameron Coulson.
Because of her love for education and her strong belief in its importance, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in her honor to the Collinsville ISD Education Foundation, P.O. Box 595, Collinsville, Texas 76233.