Martha Sue Kennedy Powell, on October 28, 2024 at the age of 86 years, our beloved mother, wife, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, aunt and friend, passed away with her family by her side holding her hands.

Born in Morganton and raised in Shelby, Mrs. Sue Powell was a native of North Carolina.

She graduated from high school in Fallston, NC before attending Lee College in Cleveland, TN. She played college volleyball and basketball and met the love of her life there, Norman Carlton Powell. They were married in 1958 and voted the most congenial couple by their college peers in 1959.

A ministerial and business student, Norman and Sue built and pastored several Church of God churches together. They would pastor in Missouri, Florida and Georgia before driving to Alaska with their four children in 1971.

They raised their family in Alaska pastoring and building churches in Kenai, Anchorage and Eagle River. They taught their love for music to their children and sang together as a family. Norman would play his guitar while Sue played the piano.

She wrote and directed plays, choirs, puppet ministries and bible studies.

She brought many ladies together sharing their talents and crafts through church ladies auxiliaries. Decorating and speaking at state church banquets, making quilts for homes, busy books for doctor lobbies and even Christmas banners for the old Sears Mall, they used their talents to show Christ's love to their community.

In 1986 she and Norman moved to Port Richey, Florida where she taught school and was an administrator with New Port Richey Christian School. When her mother and mother-in-law needed full-time medical care, she opened her home and lovingly provided full-time care until their passing in 1994. Shortly after, Norman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and she worked and cared for him until he peacefully passed the following year in 1995.

Finding herself on her own again at the age of 56, she reentered the workforce full time working at Ceridian where she continued sharing her faith through a weekly lunch bible study.

God blessed her with new close friends and a new career close to her family in St. Petersburg, FL.

In 2015, she began treatment for cancer. After successful treatments and surgery in 2016, she was deemed cancer free, she decided to retire and moved back to Shelby, NC in 2018.

She thought she was there to stay, but God wasn't finished with her. In 2022, after being diagnosed with dementia, she moved to San Antonio, Texas to live with her daughter, Andrea, and her caring family. They lovingly cared for her in their home until 2023 when she moved into an assisted living home- she liked to call it her "girlfriend's house". Mrs Ruth and her staff at Boarding With Tender Care were kind, professional and compassionate in the demonstration of the love of Christ.

While there, Mom could always be found praying for the needs of the other residents, telling stories, offering to help the staff or, engaging her new friends in a game of dominos and signing pictures she'd colored with words of encouragement for others to enjoy.

Sadly, in July of this year her cancer returned. A few months later she peacefully transitioned to heaven, without pain, with family by her side holding her hands.

Sue will be lovingly remembered by her children Carlton Victor Powell (Judy) of Palmetto, FL; Patty Lynn Gilbert (Richard)of Lynn Haven, FL; Donna Teresa Smith (Jonathan) of Chugiak, AK; Andrea Lee Davis(Angus) of San Antonio, TX; 10 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren. Her brother John Wayne Kennedy (Mary) and sister Barbara Jean Dover (Jack) of Shelby, NC and her sister-in-law Ruby Stuart (Red) of Orlando, FL.

She is preceded in death by her husband of 37 years, Norman Carlton Powell, her parents, Austin Victor and Maggie Corinne Kennedy, brothers Author, Lee, Earl and A. V. Kennedy, and her sisters Thelma Sealy, Ruth Cooper, Rachel Diane Kennedy and, Linda Kennedy.

Family will receive friends Saturday, November 16 at 10am followed by a memorial service at 11am at Stamey-Tysinger Funeral Home, 946 E. Stagecoach Trail, Falston, NC 28042.

A graveside service will follow immediately after the memorial service.