Mrs. Theresa Jane Watson Childers came into this world on May 16, 1925. She finished her mortal time here on October 4, 2024. Her father, Jefferson “Jeff” Watson and mother, Mary Elizabeth “Mollie” Daye Watson, raised her and her five siblings (Hugh, Alec, Ruby, Gary and Dick) in a home rich with love, during the heart of the Great Depression on a rural farm in eastern Burke County. Not the Walton’s, more like the Walton’s poor cousins.
Theresa leaned during this time of difficult living life lessons, featuring the value of love and hard work, which she applied throughout her life. When Theresa was 17 years old, she saw in the local post office an advertisement for war time workers needed in the factories up north. Obtaining the job, she boarded a bus in Hickory and rode to Dayton, OH to work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, building airplane engines. She was one of thousands of Rosie the Riveters, who manned, pun intended, our factories during the war. She returned home in 1944 to work in local textile mills.
In 1946 she met and a year later, married Ray Childers, creating a union that touched many lives. In January 1981 brain cancer took Ray. Ray’s community involvement, with Terry (his nickname for her), by his side over those 34 years, led to Burke County Schools naming a new eastern Burke elementary school, Ray Childers Elementary. It may have been more appropriately named Ray and Theresa Childers Elementary.
Mama T, the name Theresa took after the birth of her first grandchild, was preceded in death by a whole lot of people, she was 99 after all. She leaves behind her son, Johnny, and daughter in-law, Beverly, grandchildren, Christy (Aaron) Slutsky, Travis (Dara) Childers and Julie (Mike) Patton, and great-grandchildren; Corinne, Raleigh and Jude Slutsky, Carson and Aubrey Childers, and Vivian, Luke and Josie Patton.
Mama T also left behind her son Tracy and daughter in-law, Susan. Mama T was preceded in death by her beloved granddaughters, Casey and Courtney Childers. She leaves behind three step grandchildren: Autumn (Skip) Stanley, Kendall (Joseph) Wilson and Orion Bradburn. Great grandchildren include Lilli and Jefferson Stanley and Henry and Annabelle Wilson.
Mama T also leaves behind her nephew, Darrell (Debbie) Childers, who had a special relationship to his aunt throughout the years, many other nieces and nephews, the children of her five siblings, who were loved by her and returned her love in special ways. Her sister in-law Lucy Rhoney survives her as well.
Mama T was reared in the faith at Shady Grove Methodist Church in Connelly Springs as a child, joining Bethany Baptist, now First Baptist Hildebran, when she married in 1947. During her 77 years at First Baptist, she was a Sunday School teacher, Sunbeam leader, WMU director and an otherwise faithful giver of her time, talents and financial resources. Always full of life and having a great sense of humor, even in her few months, she was able to muster a hardy laugh at jokes and humorous situations.
Funeral services will be held on Sunday, October 13, 2024 at 3:00 P.M. at First Baptist Church Hildebran, with Rev. Cory Smith and Rev. Ron Arndt officiating. Interment will follow in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends on Sunday, from 2:00 until 2:45 P.M at First Baptist Hildebran lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Carolina Caring. Their hospice ministry served Mama T and her family with great distinction over the past seven months. Today she is celebrating with her husband, whom she lost 43 years ago, and her grandchildren, Casey and Courtney, whom she lost almost 22 years ago. “O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy Victory”.