Memorial services for Lanell Davidson Wassum, 67, of Athens, Alabama will be Saturday,
October 12, 2013 at 10 a.m. in the sanctuary of First United Methodist Church of Athens,
Alabama with a Life Celebration-Reception to follow in The Beasley Center next to the church.
The Reverends Dr.Jimmy Bassham, Dr. Andrew Wolfe and Dr. Mac Chapman officiating.
Mrs. Wassum, who died Friday, October 4,2013 at UAB hospital, was born February 3, 1946
in Sylacauga, Alabama, to Air Force Chief Master Sargent Lanoit Davidson and Nell Guy
Davidson. Lanell was a bright child, did well in school and formed many lasting friendships
because she loved people. She graduated from A.G. Parrish High School in Selma, Alabama in
1964 and from Birmingham Southern College in 1968. While attending college she met Al
Wassum, a Birmingham Southern faculty member and the school’s baseball coach. They were
married immediately following her graduation.
Lanell taught three years in Tennessee prior to the couple moving to Athens. She was a science
and math teacher at Athens Middle School for 26 years. She loved teaching and took the first
group of Athens Middle School students to Dauphin Island on a science studies trip in
1982. Illness brought about her retirement from teaching. A liver transplant in 1993 and a
kidney transplant, with a kidney donated by her daughter in 2009, gave her 20 additional years of
life. She was active in her church and community and following her retirement from teaching
worked part time, first at Cluxton’s Jewelers in Athens and then at First Methodist Church in
Athens.
She was preceded in death by her father, Lanoit Davidson. She is survived by her husband of 45
years, Al Wassum; daughter Missy Wassum Greenhaw and husband, Lanier Greenhaw;
grandsons Guy Greenhaw and Ben Greenhaw; son Matt Wassum; grandsons, Cole Wassum and
Drew Wassum; mother Nell Davidson; sister Peggy Davidson Smith; brother, Lou Davidson, all
of Athens; brother Ken Davidson and wife Cheryl Davidson of Smiths Station, Alabama; sister-
in-law Ellen Wassum Wheeler and husband, David Wheeler of Bristol, Virginia; several nieces
and nephews; and countless friends and former students.
Memorial should be sent to First United Methodist Church, 208 W. Hobbs Street, Athens AL
35611 ; to the Lanell Davidson Wassum scholarship fund at Birmingham Southern College, P.O.
Box 549003, Birmingham, AL 35254; or a charity of your choice.
