Mary Ann Baxter

Mrs. Mary Ann Baxter, age 86, of Martin, died Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, at her residence. Graveside service will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, at East Side Cemetery in Martin with Cathy Barnett officiating. Friends may assemble at the cemetery at 9:45 a.m. Murphy Funeral Home of Martin will be in charge of the arrangements. Family will serve as pallbearers. She was a member of Oak Hill United Methodist Church, was retired from GTE Directories, was a 1953 graduate of Martin High School and a graduate of University of Tennessee at Martin. After years of working in Florida and Texas, she returned to Martin where she became an active community member, was secretary to the library board for 10 years, secretary and treasurer for the Weakley County Genealogical Society, was a secretary and photographer for the Martin Kiwanis, served as a member of the Weakley County Archives Project indexing books, served on the Cemetery Board for Oak Hill Methodist Church, was a long-time member of the Sky Hawk organization, a UTM Alumnus attending events and participating in Candle Ceremonies to welcome freshmen in the fall, worked on a team collecting family history information for the book “Weakley County Tennessee History and Families 1823 to 1998,” and co-authored a book with Hobart Beale about the Martin Panthers that can be found at the UTM Library, the Weldon County Library and the News Museum in Washington D.C. Mrs. Baxter is survived by a special friend, Bruce McDaniel of Martin; her daughters, Cindy (Ward) Grafton of Longwood, Florida, Bonnie Baxter of Martin and Cathy (Lawrence Rubey) Baxter of Bethesda, Maryland; a son, John Baxter Jr. of Martin; 13 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and one great great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by husband, John Baxter; and her parents, Carl and Lucille Doran Davis. In lieu of flowers, the family request memorials be made to the Martin Public Library Foundation designated for the Genealogy Room, 410 South Lindell St, Martin, TN 38237. Online tributes may be left at murphyfuneralhome.net.