MONTEZUMA — Catherine Childress Harvard, 93, of Montezuma, Georgia, passed away on March 28, 2017. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, March 30 at Montezuma United Methodist Church. The Rev. Nancylee Cater and Dr. Tony Caldwell will officiate. Interment will follow at 2 p.m. in the Orange Hill Cemetery in Hawkinsville, Ga., with military honors.

She was born on July, 23, 1923, in Indianola, Mississippi. She lived on the family farm in Isola, Mississippi, with her four brothers and two sisters until the age of 18 when she joined the Women’s Army Air Corps (WAC). While stationed at Maxwell Field, she met and married her husband of 56 years. She lived in Montezuma, Georgia, for over 60 years where she was a member of the Montezuma Methodist Church.

Kitty retired from Robins Air Force Base as a civil servant with 30 years of service from the Procurement and Procedure Department.

Her years in the WAC enabled her to use her athletic gifts. As captain of her softball and basketball teams she showed leadership in an era when there were few avenues where women could compete in athletics.

Her family and friends will remember her faith-filled heart, her generous spirit, her servant hands, her curious mind, and her adventurous approach to life.

She poured out her passion for her family, friends, gardening, cooking, church activities, spectator sports, and the outdoors. She was preceded in death by her parents, Samuel Belvi Childress and Zell Garrard Childress of Isola, Mississippi, and her husband, Jerre Eugene Harvard.

“Miss Kitty” is survived by her daughter, Linda Howard (Hoke); her sons, John (Carol) Harvard, and Jerre (Beverly) Harvard; three grandsons, Jerre Harvard III (Gudrun), Hoke Howard Jr. (Katie), Christopher Harvard; a stepgranddaughter, Carley Blount McDonald; two granddaughters, Amye Donahoo, and Valerie Wells (Charles); three great-granddaughters, Haley and Abigail Wells, Parker Howard; four great-grandsons, Jackson and Bennett Donahoo, Benjamin and Magnus Harvard.

The family will receive friends one hour before the service at the social hall of Montezuma United Methodist Church. Those desiring may make donations to Montezuma United Methodist Church, 203 N. Dooly St., Montezuma GA  31063, or to Phoebe Sumter Hospice of Americus and Sumter County, 126 E. Furlow St., Americus GA 31709.

The family is at the residence of John and Carol Harvard, 374 District Line Road, Americus GA 31709.

To sign our online registry or to send condolences to the family, you may visit Mathews’ website at www.mathewsfuneralhome.com.