Mary Clinkscales White

White, Mary Gilreath Clinkscales, age 103, died peacefully on December 12, 2018, at the home of her caretakers/cousins, Keith Peters and Gaye Thomas in Marietta, Georgia.

She was born on October 8, 1915, in Anderson, South Carolina. Her family moved to Montgomery, Alabama when she was a young child and she grew up there. She graduated from Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1938 with a BA in Greek and Hebrew.

She married Emmett Lamar White at the First Baptist Church in Montgomery on December 27, 1940. Shortly thereafter, the couple moved to Arlington, Virginia. In 1956, they moved for one year to San Antonio, Texas and then to Atlanta, Georgia in 1957. In 1989, they moved to Marietta, Georgia.

Her professional work included working as secretary in various elementary schools, selling real estate, and coordinating married-student housing at Emory University. In the early 1960s, she received her Master of Science Degree in Statistics from Emory University and worked at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) until her retirement in 1985.

She was a lively and adventurous person of wide interests and skills who enjoyed her long life to the fullest. Among her many passions were gardening, water-skiing, painting, sewing and travel. Along with two of her sisters—Emma and Ria Jane—she travelled to countries all over the world.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Emmett Lamar White; her parents, Julian Edgar and Mary Gilreath Clinkscales; her sisters, Emma Florence Clinkscales and Maria Jane Clinkscales Chiepalich; brothers, Jefferson Gilreath Clinkscales and Julian Edgar Clinkscales Jr.

She is survived by her sister, Elizabeth Juliet Clinkscales Graves, her daughter, Elizabeth Gilreath White Mestres; her son, Lamar Vinson White; her grandsons Joseph Lamar Mestres, Christopher McCormick and Ian Olivier White; her great-granddaughters Danielle Lynne Mestres, Megan Nicole Mestres; her great-great-grandson Maximus Michael Magliochetti; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. She is buried at the Georgia National Cemetery near Canton, GA.

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