Ethel Carney Moore

Ethel (Sullivan) Carney Moore

As of 11:32 AM on Sunday, February 26, 2017, this world is an emptier place. Ninety-six years of exquisite beauty and elegance, sweet southern hospitality, grace and graciousness, wicked humor, fierce love, and superhuman fortitude concluded in a final fragile breath. Ethel (Sullivan) Carney Moore passed away just as she had wished, in her own home surrounded by family.

Born in Townsend, Tennessee on December 18, 1920 to her mother, Millie Lou (Lawson) Sullivan, and John Franklin Sullivan, who was killed in a work accident a few months earlier, Ethel grew up in her beloved Smoky Mountains, raised by her mother and grandparents. She met and married J.B. Carney, and at the age of 17, gave birth to her first son, Gerald Tyrone Carney. Later, Jonathan David Carney and Patricia Lynne Carney were born, completing the family. Ethel spent 20 years working for the Dalton Police Department as a crossing guard, keeping Dalton’s children safe to and from school every morning and afternoon. She also sang and played organ and piano for the Green Street Baptist Church. She was a gifted gardener, and often had strangers stop to take pictures of the beautiful flowers in her yard.

Many years after J.B. passed away, Ethel found love again with a handsome man she met at the Dalton Senior Center, and at the age of 84, she eloped with her boyfriend, D. Moore (to the delight of her friends and family). Together, they were active members of the Dalton First Baptist Church. After being widowed a second time, Ethel lived an independent life in her own home, working with her plants and flowers in the yard she loved, until just three weeks prior to her passing at the age of 96.

Ethel was preceded in death by her sister, Hazel Sullivan; son, Gerald Carney; brother, Ray Sullivan; husband, J.B. Carney; second husband, D. Moore; and brother, Park Sullivan. She is loved and missed by her son, Jonathan and Casey Carney; daughter, Patricia (Lynne) and Rod Scherencel; granddaughters, Germaine Carney Teichler, Helen Carney Pfeifer, and Melanie Scherencel Bockmann; grandsons Rodney Scherencel and Jake Carney; and seven great-grandchildren.

A celebration of life will be held at Love Funeral Home, 1402 N Thornton Ave, on Wednesday, March 1, 2017. Family will begin receiving visitors at 11 AM, and the service will begin at 1 PM. (706) 278-3313.

Words of comfort may be sent to the family at www.lovefuneralhomega.com.