Ava Childers Eaton went to be with the Lord on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, after a long illness. She was born in Marion County, Alabama to Henry Curtis Childers and Hettie Johnson Childers. She was the fifth child of twelve. All siblings have predeceased her.
Ava married her husband of forty years, Chester Lee Eaton of Coffee County, on March 11, 1950. They had three daughters together and a rich life before he passed October 22, 1989. Ava Eaton is survived by her daughter Marcia Jones, Deborah Eaton Butler, both of Murfreesboro, TN, and Carolyn Hartwig (Carter) of Houston, Texas. Ava is also survived by grandsons Mason Jones (Antoinette), Jarrod Hartwig, and Graeham Jones (Kelsey). Her great grandsons are John Mason Jones and Preston Jones.
Ava was devoted to Christ, her family, and the education of others. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky after also completing coursework at the University of Cincinnati and Villa Madonna College. She went on to receive her master’s degree from George Peabody College in Nashville, TN.
She began her career in education at Holmes High School in Covington, Kentucky teaching business classes. She then moved back to Tennessee, where she had lived briefly, to teach at Hillwood High School in Nashville as an English teacher. Learning that the first community college in Tennessee, Columbia State Community College in Columbia, TN, was hiring teaching staff, she applied and was the first teaching staff member hired for the new college in 1967. She went on to be the department chair for the Secretarial Science Department, and then she progressed to the Dean of Continuing Education, where she hired all the night school staff, created class schedules, oversaw extra programs, and managed the off-campus classes. Ava Eaton was instrumental in creating the Columbia State Community College Franklin, Tennessee campus. She was a major contributor to what CSCC is today.
After her retirement from education in 1990, she moved to Murfreesboro, TN to be close to family. She became a member of Northminster Presbyterian Church, where she attended for 12 years, and was an elder of the church. At the time of her death, Ava was a 21-year member of First United Methodist Church where she often led Sunday school classes and was in Wesleyan Women. Ava was a devoted Christian her whole life and was an example of the light Jesus wishes everyone to be.
She was always a leader in anything she was involved with. She was a member of the American Association of University Women, the Columbia Business and Professional Woman’s Club, Tennessee Business and Professional Women’s Club, Southern Association of Independent Schools Evaluator, Delta Kappa Gamma educational sorority, and member of the first chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy Chapter in Nashville, TN which she joined in 1964.
Ava was a true lover of history, and she took great pride in the education aspect of the UDC, establishing scholarships and relating the accurate history of the War between the States. She was the president of her chapter several times, performed various state offices and on committees in UDC. She became the UDC state president in 2000-2002. She picked the design and helped to plan the Tennessee monument at the Shiloh National Military Park, and she brought the lawsuit against Vanderbilt University regarding Confederate Memorial Hall. Ava Childers Eaton will leave the world a better place because of her presence in it.
There will be a visitation from 4-8 at Woodfin Memorial Chapel on Monday, December 18, 2023. The funeral service will be at noon on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, at Northminster Presbyterian Church. Burial will be in Fredonia Cemetery. www.woodfinchapel.com
