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Submitted: 10/2/21 • Approved: 10/2/21 • Last Updated: 10/5/21 • R460597-G460596-S3
July 21, 1927-November 18, 2004
*Photo, courtesy of Edith Guynes Stanley
*Obituary
WHEELER - Sammie Lee Dougherty Atherton, 77, died Thursday, Nov. 18, 2004.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Monday in First Baptist Church with the Rev. Bill Stiles, pastor of Allison Baptist Church, officiating. Burial will be in Wheeler Cemetery by Wright Funeral Home.
Mrs. Atherton was born July 21, 1927, to Sam and Ada Lee Dougherty at McLean. She moved to Briscoe in 1935. Sammie graduated from Briscoe High School in 1945 and attended Hardin Simmons University in Abilene. She taught the third and fourth grades in Briscoe for several years. Mrs. Atherton married Darville Atherton on Jan. 5, 1947, in her parents' home in Briscoe. They ran a dairy farm was well as farming and ranching. She enjoyed canning and cooking abundant and delicious meals for her family in the fields. She supported her boys in all their sports activities. After a death in the community, she would supply breakfast for the family.
Mrs. Atherton also loved to travel. Sammie and Darville celebrated 57 years of marriage together. They lived in Briscoe until 1977, then they moved 13 miles east of Wheeler, where they built a home. She was a loving, caring wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother. She loved the Lord and was a member of First Baptist Church.
She was preceded in death by her parents; a sister; two brothers, S.W. and Alva Dean Dougherty; and three sons, Arville Dean in 1967, Lee Royce in 2002 and Mickey "Mick" Atherton in 2003.
Survivors include her husband; a son, Rusty Atherton and wife, Noveta, of Wheeler; a daughter- in-law, Debbie Atherton; two brothers, Gene Dougherty of Pampa and Jim Dougherty of Amarillo; five grandchildren; four stepgrandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; three stepgreat-grandchildren; a great-great-grandchild; and numerous nieces and nephews.
The family suggests memorials be to the Boy Scouts of America.
Amarillo Globe-News, Nov. 20, 2004
Contributed on 10/2/21
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Record #: 460597