Marie Stinnett Brake

In the presence of her loving and devoted husband of sixty years, Joseph A. Brake, and her four children, Marie Stinnett Brake passed peacefully on March 5, 2008. Born in Friendsville, Tennessee in 1924, she graduated from Tennessee Wesleyan College in 1943 and the University of Tennessee in 1946, where she was one of three women to graduate that year in the College of Business Administration. She was the daughter of Charles and Hattie Stinnett and sister to Earl C. Stinnett and Charles Pat Stinnett, Jr., all who preceded her in death. Throughout her later life, Marie said that she had enjoyed the best of both worlds. She stayed home and brought up her four children, Rebecca Brake Murray, Patricia E. Brake, Vicki Brake Cantrell, and Joseph A. Brake, Jr. She was actively involved in her church and community in their hometowns of Kingsport, Tennessee, Longview, Texas, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Ashland, Kentucky, where they made a home for thirty-five years. In Ashland, she was a member of First United Methodist Church, and more recently a member of Middlesettlements United Methodist Church in Louisville, Tennessee, where she and her husband were married in 1947. She served as superintendent of the Children’s Division of Sunday School at Franklin Avenue United Methodist Church in Portsmouth, as president of the Country Lane Garden Club, League of Women Voters, Progressive Mothers’ Club, and the American Association of University Women. She was also active as a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader. Marie later earned a Master’s Degree in Business Education, and she began a second career at the University of Kentucky, Ashland Community College, where she retired at age seventy as an assistant professor. While there, she also served as the Handicapped Coordinator, the Veterans’ Coordinator and she taught several courses, including management and business education. She developed and organized the Handicapped Awareness Week in Ashland and was responsible for making the college accessible for the handicapped. Former students and veterans would always return to her office and tell her about their successes. Among many words of wisdom, she encouraged them to graduate and to use good grammar and manners. In addition to her husband and children, Marie is survived by her sons-in law, David White Murray III and James Edward Cantrell, her daughter-in-law, Allyson Burton Brake, and her grandchildren, Allison Murray Near and husband Tom, Hannah Howard Reed and husband Josh, David White Murray IV and wife Erin, James Clay Cantrell, Jennifer Patton Howard, Joseph Christopher Cantrell, Rebecca Marie Howard, Katharyn Renee Brake, Sarah Jo Brake, Samantha Faye Jenkins, Jane Allyson Jenkins, and Peter Jenkins. Arrangements are through McCammon-Ammons-Click Funeral Home in Maryville, where visitation will be observed Friday evening, March 7 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Services will be held at Middlesettlements United Methodist Church in Louisville, Tennessee at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, March 8. Interment in the Middlesettlements Cemetery will follow the service.