Debra Matthews’ funeral this afternoon was meant to be a “celebration of her life, her labor and her love,” said officiant the Rev. Paul McDaniel.
Ms. Matthews, 58, served on the Hamilton County Board of Education for 10 years. She died early Sunday at Memorial Hospital.
The service, at Ms. Matthews’ longtime home church, Second Missionary Baptist, focused on how she gave of herself to family, friends and community.
“(Debra) died because her body was broken, broken in the service of giving what she had,” Mr. McDaniel said. “And she gave it without reservation.”
Several hundred people packed into the church on East 3rd Street to listen to classmates, cousins, elected officials and friends remember Ms. Matthews through words and music.
Immediately after her funeral, she was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Kelli Gauthier covers K-12 education in Hamilton County for the Times Free Press. She started at the paper as an intern in 2006, crisscrossing the region writing feature stories from Pikeville, Tenn., to Lafayette, Ga. She also covered crime and courts before taking over the education beat in 2007. A native of Frederick, Md., Kelli came south to attend Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. Before newspapers, ...
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