Obituary of Martha McGehee

Martha May Setzer McGehee passed away peacefully at the Elks National Home on Monday, October 31, 2011. She was born in Dennison, IL, on August 4, 1919, to Joseph and Ruby Popp Setzer and grew up in TX, graduating as valedictorian from Mount Pleasant High School in 1936 and completing 2 years of business college. She moved to Washington DC in 1938 and worked in the Navy war department for several years. There she met and married her husband of 56 years, John Hasten McGehee, an Army veteran. After the war, her husband took several positions with Home Beneficial Life Insurance Co, in and around the Richmond, VA, area, where they had 3 children: Judith Anne McGehee, John Hasten McGehee, and Robert Stuart McGehee. In 1959, they moved to Bedford, VA, where her husband managed the Home Beneficial office for 25 years until his retirement in 1984. She dearly loved her home in the Bedford mountains and their many friends with whom they shared bridge, the Hokies, and the YMCA. In 2007, Martha moved into the Elks National Home where she made many new friends and received the best of care that the nurses and staff there provide. Martha was preceded in death by her husband and son Robert, a decorated Persian Gulf War veteran, and her sister, Margaret Moss, step-sister Muriel Swan Bell, and step-brothers Warren and Harold Swan. In addition to her daughter Judy and son John, she is survived by her son-in-law Steve Otis, daughters-in-law Jane Overstreet McGehee and Anne Schwind McGehee, 6 grandchildren: Greg, Jeff, Jim Otis and Kate Otis Sullivan, Jared McGehee, and Caroline McGehee, 5 great grandchildren: Lainey, Bailey and Walker McGehee, Mary Kate Sullivan, and Nolan Otis, and 1 nephew, Joseph Moss. The family requests that memorial contributions may be made to Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church, 1307 Oakwood Street, Bedford, VA 24523. A Celebratory Mass will be held on Friday, November 4, 2011 at 11AM at Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church by Father Salvador Anonuevo. Interment will in Greenwood Cemetery. The family will receive friends on Thursday from 5 until 7 PM at Updike Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Bedford.