Margaret Ann Hartley

Margaret Ann Patton Hartley, age 79, of Coker, AL, passed away on July 24, 2025, at Northport DCH Medical Center. A visitation will be held on Monday, July 28, 2025, from 6-8 pm at Tuscaloosa Memorial Chapel Funeral Home. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, at 2 pm at Tuscaloosa Memorial Chapel with Rev. Ronny Channell and Bud Sullivan officiating with interment to follow in Tuscaloosa Memorial Park. There will also be a visitation held one hour prior to the service.

She is preceded in death by her mother Mary Lucile Parsons Patton Gilliam, her stepfather Stancil J. Gilliam, her father Allen Curtis Patton, her sister Helen Virgie Patton Blackwell, her brothers and sisters-in-love Adrian Patton and Mary Moore Patton Deese, David Patton and Betty Hall Patton, and Stoney Rex Patton and Vickey Patton. She is also preceded by her brothers-in-love David Hartley, Jr, Kenneth Ray Hartley, and James Franklin Hartley and a brother-in-law Clarence Patton.

She is survived by her husband of 58 years Earnest Tillman Hartley, her daughter Cindy Hartley Channell, her son-in-love Ronny Lee Channell, and her grandson Ron Channell, Jr. She is also survived by her brothers-in-love Arthur Hartley (Ann), Lawrence Hartley (Carolyn), and Danny Hartley (Mary) and sisters-in-love Dorothy Hartley Patton and Patricia Hartley Smith (Stanley), also former sisters-in-love Cindy Hartley and Nancy Phelps; thirty-six nieces and nephews, and a host of great nieces and nephews.

Margaret Hartley was a God-fearing, talented, and wonderful mother. She loved Jesus with all her heart and strived to live a Christian life. She served the Lord faithfully in various churches. She often recounted walking to church as a little girl with her mother and siblings to attend her first church, Union Grove Baptist Church, in the community of Coker where she grew up, living on Romulus Road, Vienna Street, and Upper Columbus Road. As a young adult she was saved and baptized at Little Hurricane Baptist Church in Peterson. She loved to sing gospel music, and in the seventies, she sang with an informal group with her sister, husband, and two guitarists. Beginning in the mid-2000's, she sang with her husband and daughter in the church they attended. One of her dreams was to be a professional gospel singer, so she learned to play the piano from her spiritual mentor, Alice Thomas Tilley, whom she met at the House of Prayer. On rare occasions she could be coaxed to substitute for the church pianist, despite her lack of confidence. Until she fell from a ladder in January 2023, marking her physical and mental decline, she sang almost every Sunday at Church of the Redeemed where she was a founding and faithful member for the last twelve years, absent only on the rare occasions that she was ill or perhaps visiting her brother's church where she also sang (she even Zoomed on her phone during the COVID pandemic).

Margaret was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother and helped support her family in every way possible. Though she was not wealthy, she was generous with her possessions and worked hard for what she had. She held a variety of positions including car hop, waitress (Waysider), monogrammer (Rental Uniforms), garment worker (Contract Knitters and Olympia Mills), and hotel maid. After her first heart valve replacement in 2013, she retired from Heritage Health Care Center where she had worked her way up from the position of dishwasher to dietary manager. After retirement, she cared for her husband who survived a life-threatening heart attack in 2006, leaving him cognitively impaired. Her first and only grandchild whom she absolutely adored arrived soon after. She helped with childcare for several years, picking him up from the same school building she once attended. After living in the same house in Tuscaloosa for over 50 years, she spent her last two- and one-half years living with her grandson and his parents, coming full circle to the same community she started life in. Her love and passion for him can be seen in the many baseball games and choir and drama performances she has attended and the many hours watching his created drama and puppet plays, not to mention participating in them herself both at home and church, and playing hiding seek.

She was a huge fan of Alabama football (and Nick Saban). She only attended one game in person, but she watched religiously on television. In the last 20 years, her daughter faithfully has watched with her trying not to get in the way when Margaret would whoop and holler at the TV during a touchdown. Even if Margaret was camping, another of her favorite pastimes, they would watch the game. It has been a fun tradition that will be greatly missed. Alabama football will never be the same.

Margaret's greatest passion and love was for her daughter. Everywhere they went she would tell everyone (true or not) how her daughter was worth ten children though she was the only one. She had not fully recovered from the second heart valve replacement in May, and Alzheimer's was destroying her ability to remember people and places. At the end though she still recognized her friends and family, and knew her daughter's name, at times better than her own. She is loved more than she knew. She is cherished. She is missed already.

Pallbearers will be Ron Channell, Jr., A.J. Hartley, Barry Patton, Billy Rex Patton, Robert Patton, Stephen Patton, and Tim Patton.

Honorary pallbearers are Ronny Patton, Sammy Hall, Members of Church of the Redeemed, Shirley Sullivan, Brenda Ragsdale, Estelle Marlowe, Tina Townsend, Joe Acre, Bernadette Little and family, Blake and Eddie Jackson, former co-workers at Heritage Health Care Center, and Aveana Home Health.

If you would like to make a memorial contribution, please consider Church of the Redeemed, a church she helped found.