Geraldine (Kilburn) Markham

Mrs. Geraldine Kilburn Markham, 87 of Tifton passed away Saturday, November 27, 2021 at her daughter’s residence in South Hill, Virginia.

A memorial service will be held in the Chapel of First Baptist Church Tifton on Saturday December 4, 2021 at 11:00 A.M. with Rev. John Hughes officiating.  The family will receive friends before the service at the church from 10:00 – 10:45 A.M.  The interment will be in Newnansville Cemetery in Alachua, FL on Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 2:00 P.M. with Rev. Craig Naylor officiating.

Mrs. Markham was born in Slab Fork, West Virginia on October, 8, 1934 to the late John Wilson Kilburn and Lottie Mae Lincoln Adams Kilburn. She was a coal miner’s daughter.  In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Rev. Hershel Arnold Markham who died in 1981. She attended school in West Virginia until the eighth grade then her family moved to Gainesville, FL where she graduated from High School then graduated from Harrell’s Business College with a degree in accounting.  In 2000, she retired as an accountant from the University of Florida after twenty-nine years.

Mrs. Markham was a member of First Baptist Church Tifton where she was an active member with the Senior Adults. She was a minister’s wife for sixteen years and widowed for thirty-nine years. She loved hot coffee, burnt toast with peanut butter, fig newtons, black licorices, oatmeal pies and Cracker Barrel “greens and beans with chow chow”. Mrs. Markham walked 3-4 miles a day and was an avid gardener. She loved missions and worked with many mission groups. She shared weekly devotionals with Maple Court and Cypress Pond for several years. Mrs. Markham was a powerful prayer warrior who only stopped with her last breath of her earthly life. She was the first woman deacon at the First Baptist Church, Alachua, Florida. Where she taught Children’s Church, and Sunday School and always sang in the choir at various churches. She loved to encourage others through cards, phone calls and pots of chicken noodle soup.

She is survived by her two daughters and sons-in-law, Medina Gale and James Schafer of Fernandina, FL and Joy Dawn and Ted Greenly of South Hill, VA. and her son and daughter in-law, Michael and Patsy Markham of Tifton, her grandchildren, Corey Schafer, Jonathan Markham, Joshua Markham, Amanda Robison, Brittney Dabney, Mandy Hutton, Theodore Greenly, Meshari Greenly, great grandchildren, Esther Markham, Hershel Markham, Renwick Robison, Bayne Robison, McKennah Dabney, Dash Dabney, Caleb Hutton, Avery Hutton, Cayden Hutton, and Case Hutton and her sister, Mary Ann Dickey of Statesboro, Georgia.

In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to The Baxley Campus, Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries, over the phone at 770-463-3800 or mail the donation to 9420 Blackshear Hwy., Baxley, GA 31513 or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, P.O. Box 1000, Dept. 142, Memphis, TN 38101-9908, or online at https://www.stjude.org/donate/donate-to-st-jude .

Albritton Funeral Directors is in charge of the arrangements.