Clara Nelson

Saturday, June 27, 2015
Lie In State: 8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M.
Family Visitation: 9:00 A.M. – 10:00 A.M.
Funeral Service: 10:00 A.M.

Scott United Methodist Church
940 Morton Street
Shelbyville, Tennessee

Interment
Willow Mount Cemetery
Shelbyville, Tennessee

Clara Frances Singleton Nelson was born in Union Ridge, Tennessee on April 10, 1935, the second of five children of the late Ernest C. and Willie Emma Hord Singleton. She entered into eternal rest on June 20, 2015, after an extended illness. She graduated with honors from Bedford County Training School in Shelbyville. She was united in Holy Matrimony to the late Joe E. Nelson on July 26, 1953, and after raising two children went back to school, graduating as the top senior in the Education Department of the University of Tennessee.

Working for years as a Human Resource Officer with two stints at AEDC, and for the State of Tennessee, she also enjoyed baking, sewing, knitting, and publishing books and short stories about her life on the ‘Ridge’. As the family historian, she researched the family archives and the recollections of her elders to compile and publish many interesting articles, in particular the chronicles of her great-grandfather George Singleton, who fought as a member of the U.S. Colored Troops in the Civil War. She loved her church and her community and was very active in both, as a Sunday School teacher and serving on the Power Board and on the Motlow College Board of Trustees until her health failed her.

In addition to her husband Joe, she was preceded in death by brothers Ernest Jr. and Carl William, a sister Alice Lucy, and a daughter Derita Francine. She leaves to cherish her memory a son Drexel and daughter Dorissia (Patrick) Dukes of Shelbyville; sister Doris Alberta (Ben) Morall of Atlanta, GA; grandchildren: Dwaina (Jabari) McIntosh of Fayetteville, AR, Shana Nelson (Jeff) Ninan and Lakisha Castillo of Gainesville, FL, Deon Nelson Sr. of Orlando, FL, Blair Dukes of Jackson, TN, Brandie Dukes of Shelbyville, Mya Clarissia Graham of Murfreesboro; seven great-grandchildren; nieces:Deniya, Wendelyn, Monica, and nephew Ben Morall III of Atlanta, GA; devoted cousins: Josephine Davis of Memphis, Arena K. Groves of Nashville, Barbara Howard, Emma Thompson, and Mother Dorothy Crismon of Shelbyville, and a host of other relatives, friends, and business associates.