Mrs. Dorothy Horton Woods, affectionately known as “Aunt Dot” and “Ma”, passed away peacefully at her home on Sunday morning, March 19, 2023, at the age of 94. Funeral services will be conducted Sunday, March 26, at 4 p.m. at Poplar Springs Church with Pastor Mark Hardin officiating. Mrs. Woods will be laid to rest beside her husband in the church cemetery. Family will receive friends Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Sammons Funeral Home in Soperton, or friends and family may call at her home.
Serving as pallbearers will be Tommy Webb, Todd Webb, Wade Webb, J. D. Webb, Darin Dobson and Doug Williams.
Born in Scott, Mrs. Woods is the last living of several children born to the late Perry and Delila Thigpen Horton. She grew up in Scott and attended school in Adrian where she played basketball for the Red Devils and was a member of the Class of 1947. Mrs. Woods married James Rufus “J.R.” Woods in 1947, and had been a lifelong resident of Emanuel and Johnson counties. She had worked as an Accountant and Bookkeeper for Swainsboro Auto Parts and Supply (NAPA) for over forty years before joining S & N Auto Supply, from where she retired after an additional twenty years in the late 1990s. “Ma” was an accomplished “country cook” that enjoyed cooking for her family that would purposely travel to arrive at meal time. In addition to cooking for her family, “Aunt Dot” enjoyed flower gardening. She and her husband had been lifelong members of Poplar Springs Church. Mrs. Woods is the widow of the late J. R. Woods, “The Telephone Man”, to whom she had been married to for seventy years before his passing in 2017. In addition to her parents and husband, Mrs. Woods is preceded in death by her siblings, Haiti Childers, Nina Webb, Corine Stewart, Elias Horton, Clarence Horton, and W. H. Horton; her only daughter, Linda Sue Woods Futrill, who passed away in 2016, and her husband, Gary Futrill, who passed away in 2019.
Mrs. Woods leaves behind her grandchildren, Melinda Hall and John Futrill (Peggy) of Columbia, SC and Amy Knight (Shawn) of Jackson; great-grandchildren, Mercedes Josey (Kaleb) of Savannah, Rhett Mixon (Karina) of Adrian, Heaven Mixon of Cullman, AL, Serenity Faircloth (Austin) of Adrian, Gage Futrill of Statesboro, Malina McKinzie of Adrian, Karl Knight of Jackson, and Mason Knight of Jackson; great-great-grandchildren, John Rhett Mixon, Asher Abigail Josey, and Olivia Rose Mixon; and many nieces and nephews.
SAMMONS FUNERAL HOME, Since 1917; Building Relationships and Honoring Memories, Soperton, Georgia is in charge of arrangements.
