Martha Brumfield Fortenberry

Martha "Claudia" Brumfield Fortenberry embodied the image of a Steel Magnolia. As a child growing up on a Mississippi farm she stood on a box to make the family's morning biscuits, tended fields alongside her seven brothers and sisters, made soap, churned butter, put up food for the winter, knitted, quilted, and by necessity lived the farm-to-table lifestyle that is highly valued by today's trendsetters. When asked about living through the Great Depression, she did not remember going without. "We didn't have a loom," she remembered, "so we had to trade for cloth if our clothes wore out. But we had plenty to eat." In fact they often had enough to share with the less fortunate who drifted onto their farm from time to time. She met her life-long love, Ferman Elmo Fortenberry, as a teenager at a church social. He plucked a comb from her hair and refused to give it back until she agreed to sit with him. She never left his side. During their marriage they moved from Mississippi to Pennsylvania and finally settled in Clarkston, Georgia where she managed their home life and their three children. When the Fortenberry family opened a grocery store in Clarkston she briefly worked there, but her energy went to volunteer activities with the PTA at her childrens' schools, and in the nursery at Clarkston Baptist Church. "She could always get every baby to sleep," her daughter Pat remembers. Away from the hard work of farm life, Claudia found her creative side. Known as a masterful seamstress, she created intricate doll clothes and sold them at the family grocery. She also created formal gowns and wedding dresses for her daughters, and Easter dresses for the granddaughters that followed. "We would go shopping and find a dress or outfit I liked," daughter Jo recalls. "She would go home, copy the style and make me that outfit so closely that you couldn't tell if it was one she made or the purchased one." Later she became an accomplished and award-winning painter of ceramics, and for many years held classes in a studio Elmo built for her in the basement of their Clarkston home. She continued to teach ceramics after they retired to a home at Lake Lanier. Claudia had a generous heart and an open home. She never considered it a hardship to host large sleepovers or team dinners for her children, or family gatherings as those children married. She eagerly watched grandbabies and great grandbabies while parents pursued college degrees and work. Claudia enjoyed traveling with Elmo to Mexico and across America, but she was happiest in the company of her family at the lake house. She enjoyed rising early to fish from the dock, watch the grandchildren swim and ski, all the while preparing a large Southern supper reminiscent of the farm in Mississippi. She never lost touch with those roots. Each autumn continued to be a time for putting up jars of homegrown tomatoes and the bounty of the garden and orchard to be treasured during the winter months, especially the holidays. After Elmo's death in 1982 she returned to the family home in Clarkston. Despite many health problems, she proved to be an unusually resilient and feisty lady. In her last years she kept watch over her bird feeders and sometimes treated her family to a large pot of chicken and dumplings or old-fashioned banana pudding. Before her ninetieth birthday she revisited the old home place in Mississippi with her son Ferman Elmo Jr. and shared memories of a life she recalled as happy but hard. She fell gravely ill at the end of February but true to her stubborn nature demanded to be taken home from the hospital. In the early morning hours on March 7, 2011, as she slept in the comfort of her Clarkston home, Claudia rejoined her beloved Elmo and went home to Jesus. Just days before her death she told visiting family, "I am so lucky to have you all." She was ninety-three. She is survived by her brother John Brumfield of Magnolia, Mississippi. She leaves behind her daughters Patricia Maddox and Jo Driscoll, and her son Ferman Elmo Fortenberry Jr. who she called "Sonny"; daughter-in-law Carole, son-in-law Dave; granddaughters Kim, Karen, Leslie, Patty, Emily, Stephanie, Susan and Ashley; grandsons Duane, Clint, Michael, Steve and Mike; great granddaughters Rachel, Ashlyn, Julia, Brittney, Abi, Alya, Grace, Peyton, Jordan, and Bailey; great grandsons Ryan, Aron, Zachary, Nicholas, Sam, Grayson, Jackson, and Conner. Her life continues in our memories and hearts. Funeral services will be held Friday March 11th at eleven o'clock at the Clarkston Baptist Church (Clarkston International Church). Interment will follow at Melwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Friends of Refugees, P. O. Box 548, Clarkston, GA 30021. Friends are cordially invited to visit with the family Wednesday from four until six o'clock and again Thursday evening from six until eight o'clock at A. S. Turner & Sons. Online condolences may be expressed by visiting www.asturner.com.

Funeral Home:
A. S. Turner & Sons
2773 North Decatur Road
Decatur, GA
30033