Florence Louise Summers Wilder Scott

Florence Louise Summers Wilder Scott

Cordova - Florence Louise Summers Wilder Scott passed away on August 17, 2020. She was a resident of Shelby Gardens Place in Cordova, TN. Louise was born March 4, 1924, in Columbia, SC, to Asbury Coke Summers and Zella Harlee Summers. She graduated from Winthrop College now Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, on May 21, 1944. After graduation she became a first-grade teacher in Spartanburg, SC. On March 18, 1946, Louise married James Sampson Wilder, Jr. Shortly thereafter, she followed her husband to the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was studying for his doctorate in philosophy.

After completing his thesis successfully in 1948 the Wilders returned to the United States where Dr. Wilder became the minister at the First Methodist Church in Gatlinburg, TN. They resided in Gatlinburg until 1952. Louise then moved with her husband to Knoxville, TN, where he became the minister at Magnolia Avenue Methodist Church. Seven years later she moved with Dr. Wilder to Chattanooga, TN, where he became the minister at Brainard Methodist Church.

Three years later in 1962 the Wilders moved to Jackson, TN, where Dr. Wilder became the President of Lambuth College, a position he held for eighteen years. Louise served as First Lady of the college during that time. In 1980 Dr. Wilder was elevated to the position of Chancellor where Louise served at his side for two more years until she and Dr. Wilder retired from Lambuth College in 1982.

In 1986 Dr. Wilder became the Rotary District Governor for the Rotary International, 676 District in West Tennessee. Louise became her husband's Appointment and Scheduling Secretary during the year he traveled the district as District Governor.

In the early 1990's Louise and Dr. Wilder moved from Jackson, TN. to the Bellevue Woods Retirement Community in Memphis, TN, where they resided until 1999 when they built an In-Law-Wing on the home owned by their daughter, Anne Shannon Piercey in Cordova, TN. Dr. Wilder preceded Louise in death when he passed away on August 2, 2004. On November 13, 2006, Louise married Dr. William Dale Scott to whom she was married until his death on September 28, 2016.

During her life Louise was a long-time member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. Before and especially in retirement Louise was passionately involved in her hobby of researching the ancestry of her immediate and extended families. She was a member of the Germantown United Methodist Church in Germantown, TN, at the time of her death.

She is survived by her son, James S. Wilder, III, and daughter, Anne Shannon Wilder Hadley Piercey. One son, Robert Coke Wilder, predeceased her on June 8, 1996. She is survived by three grandsons: William James Hadley, Benjamin Wyatt Wilder, and Robert Coke Wilder, Jr., three granddaughters, Sara Catherine Piercey, Emily Carol Piercey, and Kalysta Leigh Piercey, and two greatgrandchildren, Presley Caroline Wilder and Jack Wyatt Wilder.

At Louise's request, due to the serious pandemic in which we find ourselves at this time, there will not be a memorial service.