Myrtle Alice Pinner

Myrtle Alice Durham was born May 11, 1926 to Olvie A. Durham and Lillian Marie Wylie. She passed away at the age of 98 on Thursday, May 1, 2025. She grew up in the Western Valley community where she attended grammar school at a small rural school between there and the Garland community. Myrtle married early in life to George Glover and had five children before they divorced in 1959. She married Herbert Pinner in 1962 and they had a daughter together.
Myrtle attended Walnut Grove Cumberland Presbyterian Church in her early years. There she served as an Elder as well as President of the Cumberland Presbyterian Women (CPW). She was President of the Home Demonstration Club in the 1970's and '80's and was the Walnut Grove community correspondent of the Covington Leader. Myrtle was an avid quilter. She said "if you got a quilt of mine, you got a part of me." She gifted quilts that are in homes in Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Indiana, Virginia and all-over West Tennessee. Besides quilting, she loved to garden, can vegetables, read, and dance. Myrtle loved her friends and family and life in general. She was the family historian and rarely met anyone that she couldn't connect to their ancestors. She enjoyed traveling on bus tours and remembered each one vividly. Myrtle was also a caregiver, assisting a brother with cancer, caring for her own mother, then her special needs sister, as well as others along the way.
Myrtle stopped driving and gave up her car at age 93. She never used a walker until age 94. She sat in a lift chair at home but prided herself in never having to use the "lift" feature. Though she was ten days shy of her 99th birthday, her mind was still sharp as a tack. She had no "quit" in her. Some Southern women appear to be Steel Magnolias but Myrtle was our Cast Iron Rose. She defended her family and would go toe to toe in an argument when she knew she was right. She was a faithful wife, protective mother, doting grandmother (she picked her own grandma's name – Nanny), and a loving great-grandmother. To quote her family, "they don't make 'em like her anymore" and "there'll never be another one like her."
Myrtle was preceded in death by her parents Olvie and Marie Durham, husband Herbert Pinner, infant son Larry Gene Glover, son Bobby Glover, great-grandson Brandon Cantrell, brothers Oren Durham and Edward Durham, sisters Doris Davis, Willie Ruth Pinner and Vashti Durham. She is survived by son Jimmy Glover (Lynn) of Saltillo, daughters Barbara Fike and Brenda Gatlin (Ronald) of Covington and Jackie Wright (Chuck) of Stanton, and her last sibling, Jerry Durham (Nouvell) of Covington, and daughter-in-law Irma Glover of Shelby Forest. At last count, she leaves behind 12 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren.
The family kindly asks that if you were blessed to receive a quilt from Mrs. Pinner, please bring it to her funeral. They will be lovingly displayed along the back of the pew where you sit, as a beautiful tribute to the joy, warmth, and color she brought into the lives of everyone she touched.