Lottie Stalnaker Roddenberry

Lottie Stalnaker Roddenberry, 105, entered into rest May 13, 2017, in Sopchoppy, the place of her birth and her entire adult life. She was retired from the offices of the Florida Industrial Commission, but over a greater period had been a homemaker and a participant broadly in her community. She was a longtime member of Sopchoppy United Methodist Church, serving in offices of the church and in United Methodist Women until well into her 80s. She had been recognized in 2013 as the oldest citizen in Wakulla County’s voter roll. She was born in 1911 to Argus Milledge “Gus” Stalnaker, Sr., and Carrie Drusilla Revell Stalnaker. He had arrived in the time of Florida’s big timber, and worked as sawyer in the mills. This occasioned her living for a time in the company town of McIntyre on the Ochlockonee River and the GFA Railroad, five miles from Sopchoppy, and attending its school. She would go on to be one of 13 in the Class of 1931 at Sopchoppy High, only the fourth class at what was Wakulla County’s sole high school. She would be a leader later, with her husband and others in the 1950s, in fundraising to outfit the school’s new marching band, again the County’s first. In the distress of the Great Depression of the 1930s, she had employment in relief projects like Sopchoppy’s sewing room and the daycare center. She worked and boarded in St. Marks for a time as teacher in the adult school, and worked in the county courthouse with many young adults of similar circumstance in organizing the records into volumes held there today. “Miss Lottie” is preceded in death by her parents and by siblings Milledge Stalnaker, Jr., Emma Mathers, and Lilla Mary Stalnaker. She is also predeceased by her husband Ernest D. Roddenberry, who was grocer and general-store merchant to Sopchoppy, as his father had been from the 1920s in a business surviving today in other hands. She is survived by her children Robert (Geri) Roddenberry, Linda (Richard) Lumley, and David Roddenberry, all of Sopchoppy; by grandchildren Cindy R. White, Bobby Roddenberry, and Catherine Strutz; by nine great-grandchildren; and by niece Nell Benedict. The family will receive friends from 10 until noon Friday, May 19, 2017, at Sopchoppy United Methodist Church, with funeral services to follow at noon. Interment will follow at West Sopchoppy Cemetery. Those who wish to make expression in other ways than flowers may make memorial contributions to Florida United Methodist Children’s Home, 51 Children’s Way, Enterprise, Fla., 32725, or to Sopchoppy United Methodist Church. Susie Mozolic of Bevis Funeral Home, Harvey Young Chapel is assisting the family with arrangements. www.bevisfh.com 850-926-3333.

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Lottie Stalnaker Roddenberry

August 11, 1911 - May 13, 2017