Val Dene Harvey

Val Dene Medlin Harvey, age 92 of Nashville, Tennessee, passed away peacefully on December 11th, 2025.

Preceded in death by her parents N.J. & Velma (Battle) Medlin. Val was born in Clinton, Oklahoma on November 21, 1933. She was educated at the University of Oklahoma and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Fort Worth, Texas.

She is also preceded in death by her husband of 71 years, James Earl Harvey (Jim). They married on August 23rd, 1953. They met in the first grade, dated in high school, and married in college. Their ministry together allowed them to travel for international conference-leading and mission trips. She served alongside Jim in seven churches in four states. (Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and Tennessee).

Val edited and wrote youth and adult curriculum material for LifeWay Christian Resources. She also wrote devotional books and was a popular writer for a regular column in Mature Living magazine.

She enjoyed oil-painting, playing the organ and piano, singing in church choirs and entertaining. In the preface of a cookbook that she compiled of family recipes she wrote, “What a wonderful life I have had! My husband, Jim, has loved me for 50 years. My children, Mark and Judy and Martha, love me and now my grandchildren, James and Jordan love me. What more can a person want or need?”

She is survived by son, Mark (his wife Judy) Harvey; daughter, Martha Burkey; grandchildren, James (his wife Jen) Harvey, and Jordan Burkey; great-grandson, Aiden Harvey.

Funeral service will be held 3:00PM Monday, December 15, 2025 with visitation one hour prior to the service at Williamson Memorial Funeral Home. John Rush will officiate. Burial will follow at Williamson Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org.

WILLIAMSON MEMORIAL FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICES, 615-794-2289. www.williamsonmemorial.com