Hazel C. Roach

Pittman Funeral Home of Geneva

Viewed: 2139

Posted by: ChadWhisnant
(334) 684-2600
Date: Jul 02 2014 1:42 PM

Hazel Cumbie Roach of Geneva passed away Wednesday, July 2, 2014.  She was 101.  Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, July 5, 2014 at the Geneva First United Methodist Church with Reverends Michael Brandenburg and Jake Brady officiating.  Burial will follow in Sunset Memorial Gardens with Pittman Funeral Home of Geneva directing.  The family will receive friends prior to the service on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m.  Flowers will be accepted or donations may be made to the First United Methodist Church, Hazel Roach Library Fund, 304 S. Academy St., Geneva, AL 36340.

Mrs. Roach was born in Bellwood, Ala. on September 26, 1912 to the late T.A. “Jack” Cumbie and Luna Virginia Parker Cumbie. Her formative years were spent living in Ozark.  She graduated from Clayton (Ala.) High School, Class of 1930.  Four years later she received a teaching degree from State College for Women, the current University of Montevallo.  History and English were subjects she taught in her first years out of college.  One of Mrs. Roach’s first students was former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace. 

She later taught at Samson High School, Ozark Jr. High, and was the librarian at Geneva High School.  She finished her teaching career at Ramer High School when her husband was Alabama’s Industrial Relations Director under three Governors. 

Mrs. Roach was instrumental in organizing a new library at the First United Methodist Church of Geneva, where she served as church organist for more than fifty years.  At the age of ninety-nine she was honored at a ceremony where the church library was dedicated in her name, one of her proudest accomplishments. She was also an early member and later president of the Geneva Athenaeum Club.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Rex D. Roach, Sr.; stepdaughter, Frances Bray; brother, Joe Cumbie; niece, Mary Jo Cumbie; and all fifty-three of her first cousins. She was the last of her generation. 

She is survived by her son, Rex D. Roach, Jr. (Jennifer) of Opelika; stepdaughter, Mary Alice Horton of St. Petersburg, Fla.; two grandchildren, Rex Daniel Roach, III (Lori) of Mobile and David Hamilton Roach (Chi) of Birmingham; five step grandchildren, Will Kirkpatrick (DeNay) of Birmingham, Susan Tuite (Jerry) St. Petersburg, Fla., John Kirkpatrick (Lori) of Birmingham, Jason Kirkpatrick (Sharon) and Alleen Bray of both Athens, Ala.; great-granddaughters, Ashton and Mary Mac Roach; eight step great-grandchildren; and her only nephew, Jack Cumbie of Ozark.

Please visit www.pittmanfuneral.com to offer your condolences in our online guest registry.

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