Emma Nell Bell Tharpe

 OZARK…Mrs. Emma Nell Bell Tharpe, a resident of the Bagwell’s Crossroads Community, near Ozark, died late Thursday afternoon, January 4, 2024, at surrounded by her loving family at her home. She was 81.

            Funeral services will be held at 3:00 P.M. Sunday, January 7, 2024, in the Corinth Free Will Baptist Church with Reverend Jason Miller officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. Fuqua Bankston Funeral Home of Ozark is in charge of arrangements. The family will receive friends from 2:00 until 3:00 P.M. Sunday in the church sanctuary.

            Emma Nell Tharpe was born on April 13, 1942, in Coffee County and spent most of her life in Dale County. She met and married Gerald L. Tharpe in 1960, where in early married years, she lived in California, Montgomery, and Dothan, before moving home to Ozark to live and raise her family.  Mrs. Tharpe was a member of Corinth Free Will Baptist Church. Anyone that knew Nell knew how much she loved her family,  and she dedicated her life to taking care of them.  Her joy came from being with her family and helping to raise each grandchild. In her last days, she would still say her family was a blessing to her. She enjoyed cooking, gardening, sewing, fishing and decorating. She is preceded in death by her parents, Marvin and Mary Emma Bell, brothers, Jimmy Bell, Edward Bell, Jerry Bell, and Gerald Bell, and a sister, Susie Bell Price.

          Nell is survived by her husband of sixty-two years, Gerald Tharpe; a daughter, Shasta Tharpe Hale and her husband, Dan Hale; a son, Gerald Lee Tharpe and his wife Kimberly S. Tharpe; her grandchildren, Whitney Hale Brock and her husband, Greg Brock, of Auburn, Al.; Ethan Tharpe, of Atlanta Ga.; Travis Tharpe and his wife Leah Solomon Tharpe, of Ozark, and Tristan Tharpe, of Ozark; her great-grandchildren are Brodie and Emma Brock, of Auburn, Al. Two sisters, Debbie Bell Withrow, and Machelle Bell Gendron, and her husband Mark Gendron; and many beloved nieces and nephews.

            Serving as active pallbearers will be Ethan Tharpe, Travis Tharpe, Tristan Tharpe, Greg Brock, Scott Bradley, and Jack Gorham.