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Ruth Cunningham Obituary

Published by Legacy Remembers on Mar. 23, 2004.

HARRIMAN, Tenn. - Ruth Morton Journey Cunningham, 96, retired Oak Ridge teacher and widow of Elbert C. Cunningham Sr., died Friday afternoon, March 19, 2004, at the home of her son, E.C. Cunningham, M.D., in Harriman, Tenn.

She was born May 18, 1907, in Maury County, Tenn., a daughter of John William Journey and Ethel Frances Morton Journey. She had lived at 112 Gordon Road since coming to Oak Ridge with her late husband and two sons in 1945. She grew up in Columbia, Tenn., and Springfield, Tenn., and lived and taught in Giles County, Tenn., Pinehurst, N.C., Corinth-Holder, N.C., and Mooresville, N.C.

From 1947 until she retired in 1970, Mrs. Cunningham taught in the Oak Ridge Public Schools, first as a fifth-grade teacher at Pine Valley School and then as a seventh-grade teacher at Jefferson Junior High School.

Surviving Mrs. Cunningham are her son, E.C. Cunningham, M.D., and daughter-in-law, Lynn Blalock Cunningham, of Harriman, Tenn., and their three children, Ellyn Kullmar of Murfreesboro, Tenn., Walter Cunningham and Charles Cunningham of Knoxville, Tenn.; her son, Joel L. Cunningham and daughter-in-law Trudy Bender Cunningham of Sewanee, Tenn., and their two daughters Nancy Cunningham of New York City and Susan Cunningham of Arlington, Va.; nine great-grandchildren; sisters, Will Frances Journey Sanders (Mrs. D.W. Sanders) of Nashville, Tenn., and Margaret Morton Porter (Mrs. Robert Porter) of Como, Miss.; sisters-in-law, Mildred Russ Cunningham (Mrs. J.P. Cunningham) of Nashville, Tenn., Iva May McMurtry Cunningham (Mrs. W.L. Cunningham) of Signal Mountain, Tenn., and Ruth Cunningham Rucker (Mrs. John Rucker) of Franklin, Tenn.; and nine nieces and nephews.

The funeral service will be conducted at noon Wednesday at First Christian Church of Oak Ridge, followed by a lunch at the church and internment in Oak Ridge Memorial Gardens.

Family and friends will be welcome from 7 to 8:30 p.m. today at the Martin Oak Ridge Funeral Home, 1017 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, Tenn., and from 11 to noon Wednesday at First Christian Church.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Disciples of Christ Compassion Ministries, P.O. Box 96, Indianapolis, IN 46206, or the Ruth Cunningham Scholarship Endowment of Susquehanna University, 514 University Ave. Selinsgrove, PA 17870.

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