Florene Mathis

Funeral services for Mrs. Florene Bilbrey Mathis, age 80, of Hoover, and formerly Cookeville, will be held Monday, October 30, 2017 at 1 p.m. at Hooper-Huddleston and Horner Funeral Home in Cookeville. Rev. Jim Rogers will be officiating. Internment will follow at Salem Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 11 a.m. until services are held. Florene went home to be with the Lord October 26, 2017. She was born August 24, 1937 to the late John Morgan and Frances Lucinda Dunavin Bilbrey. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Education from the University of Ohio, and her Master's Degree in Education from The University of Alabama. Mrs. Mathis was a proud elementary and middle school teacher in both Ohio and Alabama. She retired from Bluff Park Elementary School in Hoover. Florene was a member of St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Vestavia Hills, AL where she taught bible study. She served as Vice-Regent of the Sunset Rock Daughters of the American Revolution chapter in Birmingham, AL. An avid genealogist, she traced her family heritage from Ireland to the seventeenth century and beyond. She also served as Chairman of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation in Birmingham which she also helped found. Florene enjoyed playing the piano and was a member of her local community garden club. In addition to her parents, she is preceded in death by her brothers, Robert Edward Bilbrey, and infant John Morgan Bilbrey Jr. Survivors include her loving husband of sixty three years, John Ernest Mathis, daughter, Carol Anne Yarbrough, son, John Kevin (Debbie) Mathis; two grandchildren, John Landon (Megan) Mathis, Elizabeth (Jonathan) Sisson, great-granddaughter, Maelee-Jane Mathis; and brother, George Leonard (Betty) Bilbrey. Hooper-Huddleston & Horner Funeral Home in charge of arrangements (931) 526-6111. You may share your thoughts and memories at www.hhhfunerals.com. In lieu of flowers, the family request a tribute donation to the Alzheimer's Association in honor of Florene.