Martha Gaines

Funeral services for Mrs. Martha Reese Street Gaines, 86, of Cookeville, will be held Wednesday, October 5 at 10 am in the Cookeville Chapel of Hooper Huddleston & Horner Funeral Home with Pastor Mario Cruz officiating. Graveside service and interment will be at 3 pm in the Jenkins Lutheran Chapel Cemetery in Shelbyville, TN. The family will receive friends from 5-8 pm Tuesday and again Wednesday from 9 am until service time at the funeral home. Mrs. Gaines died Sunday, October 2, 2011 at the Cookeville Regional Medical Center. She was born October 31, 1924 in Clarksville, TN to the late Donald McBride and Annie Wells Street. Mrs. Gaines was a former member of Harpeth Presbyterian Church in Nashville and current member of West Minister Presbyterian Church in Crossville. She was a 1942 graduate of Peabody Demonstration School in Nashville and received her Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education from Stephens College in 1944. Mrs. Gaines was one of the first kindergarten teachers in Davidson County at West End Methodist Church and continued her teaching career at Oak Hill Elementary School and eventually Martha O"�Brian settlement home. She was an active member and volunteer for the YMCA of Middle TN, having taught water aerobics. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, George Robertson Gaines; daughter, Elizabeth Ann Gaines Comfort; and brother, John William Street. She is survived by two daughters and sons-in-law, Martha Carolyn and Richard Wooton of Indianapolis, IN, Mary Alice and Roger Wilmoth of Cookeville; ten grandchildren, Robert Comfort (Angie), Michael Wooton (Holly), James Wooton (Ann), Deborah Wooton Curvin (Eric), John Wooton (Erin), Bradley, Benjamin, Marissa, Juliana, and Austin Wilmoth; and twelve great-grandchildren. Mrs. Gaines grandchildren will serve as pallbearers. Memorial contributions can be made to Bethesda Health Care Center Rehab Project, 444 One Eleven Place, Cookeville, TN 38501.