Zurma Henry Caldwell

Zurma Henry Caldwell, born Sept. 9, 1926 in Ohio, departed this earth June 17, 2019. She was preceded in death by her father, Samuel Parker Mounce; mother, Virginia Whicker Mounce; husband, Harold Wilkinson Henry; second husband, Leo Rufus Caldwell; son, Michael Pleas Henry: and son-in-law, Larry Herman Reeves. She is survived by her daughters, Patricia Reeves Jaloszynski (Richard), Maryville; Diana Swann Combs (Doug), Rosenberg, TX; Phyllis Henry Strange (Richard), Knoxville; son, Bruce Edward Henry (Robin), Maryville; daughter-in-law, Karen Boyd Henry, Maryville; stepson Robert Caldwell (Nan), San Jose, CA. Surviving grandchildren include: John Edward Bleazey, II (Heidi), Fayetteville, NC; Catharine Bleazey Hatcher (Michael), Knoxville; Ian Kirk Swann, Jacksonville, FL; Aislinn Swann Ward (Spencer), Madison, AL; Michael Boyd Henry, Louisville, KY; Hannah Gammon White (Ben), Knoxville; Rachael Gammon Pryfogle (Michael), Knoxville; Clara Elizabeth Strange, Knoxville: Micah Miranda and Mason Bruce Henry (Maryville). Step Grandchildren include: Alicia Caldwell, San Francisco, CA; Stella Strange Kane (Ryan) , Morrison, CO; Ryan L. Reeves (Monica), Lenexa, KS; Christopher Swann (Natasha), Atlanta, GA; Renee Combs, St. Augustine, FL; Amy Combs, Washington, DC; Kimberly Jaloszynski, East Rochester, NY; and Kristen Jaloszynski Moyer, Prairie Village, KS. Zurma is also survived by great grandchildren: John Bleazey III (Jack), Ft. Polk, LA; Curtis Bleazey, Fayetteville, NC; Tristan Wright, Greenbrier, TN; Ashton Swann, Jacksonville, FL; Weston and Evelyn Ward, Madison, AL; and Knoxville based Carden Hatcher, Vivian and Henry White, and Iverson and Louisa Pryfogle. In addition there are 7 step great grandsons. Zurma also leaves brothers, Esmund Mounce (Ruth), Somerset, KY and Duane Mounce (Lois), Selmer, TN and a sister, Dorcas Mounce York (Frank), West Chester, OH and many nieces and nephews, great and great great nieces and nephews.

Zurma spent her early years in Ohio and Kentucky. She was a teenager when her youngest siblings were born and helped with them as their mother was in poor health. During World War II she worked sewing parachutes and then helped returning service men find jobs. She met and married her husband, Harold, in Lexington, KY, where she was going to school and working as a secretary. They moved to live on Harolds familys farm in Maryville, Tennessee where they started their family. They later lived in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Ann Arbor, Michigan and moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1965. Harold left her a widow in 1983 and she married Leo in 1986. She taught herself to play the piano and got organ lessons when living in Maryville and became the first to play the organ at Pecks Memorial United Methodist Church. Her life was centered on her family and her faith. She has been a member of Church Street United Methodist Church since 1965.

Zurma always did what she could to help support the family of five children and to help in her church and community. Harold was earning a Ph.D. degree during the years in Ann Arbor where their fifth child was born. She worked as a substitute secretary in the labs there, typed papers for graduate students and baby sat in the home for the children of working neighbors during those years. She also typed Harolds dissertation. She was a room mother for various classrooms and a den mother for scouts. She also stayed busy running children to the usual flurry of lessons, sports practices, church activities, etc., activities in which she encouraged their participation.

Zurma and Harold first moved to Knoxville in 1965 for him to teach at the University of Tennessee and she worked as a part-time secretary for the Knoxville Symphony. She volunteered with the FISH of Knox County food pantry and clothing distribution center (including working at a monthly rummage sale to support a preschool program for underprivileged children), with Up With People, and as a Pink Lady at the East Tennessee Childrens hospital (serving as president of the auxiliary in the early 1970s). For 41 years she volunteered at Lakeshore Hospital, going every Tuesday to lead patients in a music program. She and her neighbor and friend, the late Gloria Dessart, led it together with one of them playing the piano and the other leading a sing-a-long. She also served as an advocate for Lakeshore patients. She has numerous awards for her years of varied volunteer work. She demonstrated her faith and her devotion to her family throughout her life and was a great model for all around her. Her heart was full of love that she shared with everyone and everyone gave that love right back to her.

Zurma was always on the go, helping children, grandchildren or friends. She enjoyed traveling, bowling, singing old harp music and clogging. She clogged with a group during the Knoxville Worlds Fair. She quit clogging with the group when she turned 60, but continued to teach clogging at her church, at the Knoxville Senior Center and at various senior residences. She moved to an assisted living facility after her stroke in 2008 left her with aphasia. The family is so very thankful for the care given and love shown by the staff and friends at Deane Hill Place.

Friends will be received at McCammon Ammons Click 220 W. Broadway Ave., Maryville, Tennessee, 5:00-7:00 P.M. on Wednesday, June 19, 2019. The funeral service will be at Church Street United Methodist Church, 900 Henley Street, Knoxville, Tennessee at 12:30 P.M. on Thursday, June 20, 2019 followed by burial in the cemetery at Pecks Memorial United Methodist Church, 2438 Wilkinson Pike, Maryville, Tennessee. In lieu of flowers contributions can be made to the Dr. Harold W. and Zurma Henry Scholarship Endowment at The University of Tennessee School of Veterinary Medicine (UTIA, Attn: Robin Haefs, 107 Morgan Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996) or Church Street United Methodist Church (Church Street UMC, P.O. Box 1303, Knoxville, TN 37901).