Bessie June Certain, 90, of 4005 Pine Ave., Huntsville, died Thursday, Sept. 30, at her home. She is survived by her daughters, Geni Certain and Teri Certain Strickland; sons-in-law, Larry Wood, Scott Strickland, and Allen Paseur; daughter-in-law, Avis Marsh Certain; grandchildren, Andrea Paseur, Dustin Paseur and his wife Danielle, Johanna Wood, Nia Hunter Witt and her husband Lee, and Ian Hunter; and great-grandsons, Dalton Paseur, Dillon Paseur, Warren Paseur and John Allen Paseur. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Philip Reeves Certain; son, Philip Anthony Certain; daughters, Andrea Lynn Certain and Deborah Rosemary Certain Paseur; grandsons, James Paul Philip Certain and John Marsh Certain; and by her second husband, Dewey C. Moss. Mrs. Certain was a staunch advocate of equal rights for women and took pride in her role in breaking through glass ceilings. She rose through the civilian employee ranks at Redstone Arsenal from a GS-3 clerk typist to become the first female physical security specialist on post and then the U.S. Army’s first female computer security specialist. She retired in 1997 as a GS-13. Born in a Huntsville cotton mill village during the depths of the Great Depression, she knew poverty as a child and developed a resourcefulness that endured throughout her life and which she taught to all her children. She loved learning and considered a day successful if it taught her one new thing. After she retired from Civil Service, she missed the intellectual challenge as well as the professional interactions of her job, but she always had a project to occupy her mind and her hands. These included working as a secretary in her grandson’s legal office and a stint as a Visiting Angel, in which she cared for people who needed aid in their homes. As a widow in her 60s, she discovered a love of line dancing and a talent for wire wrapping gemstones, thanks to the influence of her second husband, Huntsville rockhound Dewey Moss. Over the next 20 years, she developed her artistic expression in jewelry design and taught wire wrapping to a number of students. Anyone who admired a piece of her jewelry usually received it as a gift on the spot. In her last years, she sewed, she read, she created elaborate flower arrangements, and she played word games to keep her mind sharp. Throughout her adult life, she welcomed visitors to her home, and she made sure no one ever left hungry. She will be interred Sunday next to her beloved Philip and Andrea Lynn in a private ceremony at Maple Hill Cemetery. Although she loved flowers, her greatest calling was helping people in need. Thus, in lieu of flowers, Mrs. Certain’s family invites gifts in her memory to the food pantry at Grateful Life Community Church in Huntsville, New Futures homeless shelter in Huntsville, Rose of Sharon soup kitchen in Huntsville, Christmas Charities Year Round in Huntsville, or to your local homeless shelter.
