Cathy Sellers Cullum

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Cathy Lee Sellers Cullum, 66, retired elementary school teacher for Columbia Academy, and resident of Columbia, died Monday, June 24, 2024 at Maury Regional Medical Center. 

Funeral services will be conducted Sunday, June 30, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. at West Seventh Street Church of Christ. Burial will follow in Lasting Hope Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Saturday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home. 

The family suggest memorial be made in Cathy’s honor to Columbia Academy, 1101 W 7th St, Columbia, TN 38401. Condolences may be extended online at www.oakesandnichols.com. 

Born March 21, 1958 in Columbia, Tennessee, to the late Allen Campbell Sellers and the late Ladye McNeese Sellers. Her Grandparents where the late Roy Leslie Sellers and the late Angie Lee Campbell Sellers of Carters Creek, and the late Dudley Jackson McNeese and the late Lochia Pearl Pierce McNeese of Lynnville. 

Growing up on a farm, in her early years, she enjoyed climbing trees and playing in the creek. She attended Spring Hill School from the first through the twelfth grade. After high school she attended and graduated from Columbia State Community College, received her Bachelor’s Degree from David Lipscomb, and went on to earn her Master’s Degree from Middle Tennessee State University. After earning her Master’s, she began teaching immediately. While at Lipscomb, Cathy was diagnosed with Hodgkin disease, and just completed her cancer treatment before graduation. 

After teaching for one and a half years in public school, in temporary stents, Cathy accepted a job at Columbia Academy, which she held for thirty five years. She began as a first grade teacher for three years before becoming the cofounder of the preschool, and spent the next twenty years there. After the preschool, she spent the next five years as a kindergarten teacher there on campus, then seven more years as a kindergarten teacher at the new Spring Hill Campus. When she left the preschool in 2005, the board of directors named the preschool building as “Miss Cathy’s House” in her honor, and she lived there upstairs. Her name is also on the gym bulldog as a thirty year teacher. She was a member of Beech Grove Church of Christ, Where generations of her grandparents and their families had attended.

Cathy is survived by her precious husband, Tom Cullum, who is formally of Nashville and the Franklin area; and his three sons, Donovan (Sarah) Cullum of California, Jared Cullum of Colorado, and Bryce Cullum of Chattanooga. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her brother, Phil Sellers; niece and nephew, James Allen (Shannon) Sellers and Claire Sellers (Justin) Hill; and her sister-in-law, Sheryl (Damron) Sellers as well as their children. She was blessed to have twenty-five aunts and uncles, thus many surviving cousins. What fun family reunions where she is survived by these cousins; Brenda Graves, Joy, Janice, Kenny Attkisson, Donna Thompson, Connie Boring, Karla Townsend, Keith Uselton, Tim, Randy, Greg McNeese, Sheila Alexander, Sherwin McNeese, Teresa Deak, Dwight McNeese, Yvonne, Jackie, Ricky, and Jimmy.

In addition to her parents and grandparents, she was preceded in death by her cousins, Wallace Harris, Dudley Lee, Glen Edwards and Daryl Harris.

Pallbearers will be family and friends.