Martha Pope

EAST PRAIRIE - Martha Good Pope, 86, died Aug. 10, 2003, at the East Prairie Nursing Center.

Born March 20, 1917, in Ohio, she was the daughter of the late Harvey Edgar and Beulah Irene Good Dock. She was raised in Detroit, Mich., and moved to East Prairie in 1945.

On Nov. 25, 1937, she married William C. Pope Jr. of East Prairie, at which time he was employed by her father in the contract/commercial carpet business in Detroit. While her husband served in the Army Corps of Engineers from 1941-1945 during World War II, they made their home in Detroit. With him overseas for long periods, she worked at a wartime factory making sights that guided bombs dropped on Europe. The couple then moved to East Prairie to start a home, where Mr. Pope was employed by his father in the automobile business. Following World War II, they made many trips together to Detroit to purchase cars and trucks and drove them back to East Prairie for resale in the business known as Pope Motors. With one car shackled to another, she and her husband, each behind the wheel, drove the 600-mile journey back to East Prairie before the days of transport truck delivery of automobiles to dealerships.

Mrs. Pope became a homemaker and was known by many for her lovely flower gardens around her home. She was also an avid vegetable gardener and a voracious reader of books and periodicals. Her opinions regarding politics were subtle but very matter-of-fact to those to whom she wished to make a point. Almost every Saturday night for 40 years, the couple played cards with their close friends, Gene and Susie Aycock, Travis and Lena Shelby, Jim and Sonny Myers and Herbert and Freida Stansberry Brooks. She was a gentle and caring woman. Her husband preceded her in death on Jan. 26, 1989.

Survivors include: two sons and daughters-in-law, William C. and Barbara Simpkins Pope III of East Prairie and Thomas H. and Debbie Leve Pope of Maryville, Tenn.; one brother and sister-in-law, William and Marilyn Dock of Buffalo, N.Y.; three grandchildren and spouses, Angie and Doyle Wicker and Kara and Billy Adams of East Prairie and William Clay and Janelle Pope IV of Fruitland; and three great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by one sister, Betty McCarthey; and one brother, Edgar Dock.

The family will receive friends after 11 a.m. Saturday at Shelby Funeral Home.

A memorial service will be conducted at 1 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home with Jim Quist, officiating.

Paid obituary