Charlene Kozy

Charlene McCoin Johnson Kozy of Mt. Juliet, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her family on Wednesday, October 22,2025. Charlene was born July 5, 1930, in Whitleyville, TN. Her parents were Reuben Henry and Martha Roberts McCoin. She attended Jackson County schools through high school and graduated from Tennessee Tech. She taught in the Metropolitan Nashville school district for over twenty years, during which time she earned her Masters and Doctorate degrees from Middle Tennessee State University.

Her doctoral work made her an internationally acknowledged source on the American Loyalists exiled from the United States after the Revolution. In addition to her dissertation, “A History of the Georgia Loyalists and the Plantation Period in the Turks and Caicos Islands,” she published a treatise in the prestigious Georgia Historical Quarterly and numerous articles in “Times of the Islands,” the Turks and Caicos magazine. She visited the TCI over fifty times, initially for research, later for friendship and leisure.

She left public schools and taught at Cumberland University for another twenty years, first as Director of the Working Adult Degree Program, then Dean of the Graduate School, then interim President, and finally, the twenty-fourth President of Cumberland University, where she served until her retirement.

She loved to travel, viewing it a logical adjunct to education. In addition to the fifty states of the U.S., she visited Canada, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, South America, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and Africa. She often included students on her travels, conducting student tours in Europe, Mexico, Turks and Caicos, and Washington, D.C.

Charlene is pre-deceased by her parents, brother R.H. McCoin, and son Billy G. Johnson. She is survived by her husband, Steve, brothers Bobby Dan (Barbara) McCoin and Ray Douglas McCoin, son Alan D. (Peggy) Johnson, step-son Stephen J. Kozy, step-daughter Sharon M. Kozy, daughter-in-law Alison Johnson Forte, grandchildren Colleen (Brock Kissinger) Bryant, Aubree (Tristan) Hill, Kate M. Johnson and Taylor M. Johnson, great-grandchildren J. Lucas Bryant, Lydia G. Kissinger, Livi Cozette Hill and Solomon W. Hill, and many nieces and nephews.

Charlene was a lifetime member of the Church of Christ and attended Center Chapel Church of Christ in Mount Juliet, TN. She loved God, her family, and her Country. She was loved and will be greatly missed by all.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, November 1, 2025 at 12:00 p.m. at Bond Memorial Chapel with interment to follow at Rob Draper Memorial Cemetery in Gainsboro, TN. Pallbearers will be Alan Johnson, Tristan Hill, Danny McCoin, Brock Kissinger, John McCoin, and Stephen Kozy, Jr. Visitation will be on Saturday November 1, 2025 from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at Bond Memorial Chapel 1098 Weston Dr. Mt. Juliet, TN 37122