Etta Evelyn Turner Stephens

Etta Evelyn Turner Stephens, 91, of Pikeville, passed away September 2, 2023.

She was born December 27, 1931 in the Lusk community and graduated from Bledsoe County High School. She was the bookkeeper at Stephens Pharmacy after she and her husband, Jim, returned to Pikeville in 1963. She became active in the Chamber of Commerce, Fall Festival, Home Demonstration Club, and other community events and fundraising. She was a member of the group that traveled from Pikeville to Nashville to bury a Bledsoe County time capsule there in 1996. Etta made time to be a chaperone for school trips or deliver medicine to customers who couldn’t make the trip to town. “Miss Etta,” as she was often called, was a welcoming presence in the drug store and took an interest in everyone…without exception! She was a member of the Pikeville Church of Christ.

Etta was preceded in death by her parents, Melvin and Maggie Turner; husband, Jim Stephens; brothers, Buddy, J.W. LaVaughn, and Gary Turner; and sister, Betty Cooper.

Etta is survived by her daughters, Vicki (Randy) Frye of Kingsport, Tennessee and Karyn (Ralph) Angel of Pikeville; grandchildren, Ashley (Matthew) Boynton, James Angel, Erin Frye, and Will Frye; great-grandchildren, Javan-Turner Angel, Margo, Oscar, and Miriam Boynton, and Cooper Frye; sister, Phyllis Turner Johnston; sister-in-law, Anna Margaret Stephens; several cousins, nieces, nephews; and a host of friends.

A graveside service will be held Saturday, September 23 at 1:00 p.m. CDT at Pikeville Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory can be made to the Pikeville-Bledsoe Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 205, Pikeville, TN  37367 (or dropped off at the Chamber office in City Hall); Mary V. Wheeler Elementary School Library; or Bledsoe County Nursing Home Activities Department.

Online condolences can be made at www.reedfamilyfh.com.

Arrangements are by Putnam-Reed Funeral Home of Pikeville.