Mattie Knight Sanders, age 92 of Guthrie, passed away on Saturday, July 16 at Tennova Healthcare in Clarksville, Tennessee of natural causes.
She was born December 12, 1929 in Culman, Alabama the daughter of the late Samuel Kipling and Laura Lue Markham Knight.
She was a member of the Guthrie First United Methodist Church and served as a Historian and on The Prayer Shawl Ministry for Guthrie UMC. She was a charter board member of the Robert Penn Warren Birthplace committee, member of the International Society for Key Women Educators, Delta Kappa Gamma and was honored in August 2017 for 50 years in Delta Kappa Gamma and the Alpha Epsilon Chapter. She was a retired teacher from the Todd County School system. She was a substitute teacher at Elkton Elementary and was at Guthrie Elementary School for 27 years. Mattie enjoyed and made a commitment to protecting birds and nature. She was a loyal friend to nature and was so proud of her National Bird Sanctuary at her home in Guthrie, Kentucky. She supported the National Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife, Save the Monarch and The Smithsonian.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Warren A. Sanders; two brothers, Orbis Edward Delk and Johnny Sinclair Delk and a granddaughter, Shannon R. Waggoner. She is survived by two daughters, Cherie Shemwell of Guthrie and Teresa Turner (David) of Clarksville, Tennessee; two sisters, Laura Evelyn Burton of Russellville and KadeanShutt of Louisville, Kentucky; two grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
Visitation with the family was Friday from 5:00 until 7:00 at the Cook-Webb Funeral Home in Guthrie and again on Saturday from 11:00 until funeral service time at 1:00 at the Guthrie First United Methodist Church, 407 Park Street, Guthrie with Rev. Mark Fentress, Pastor Karen Franklin and Rev. Mark Carrigan officiating. Interment will follow at the Stokes Chapel Cemetery in Elkton.
In lieu of flowers, the family ask that memorial donations be made in memory of Mattie K. Sanders to Guthrie UMC, PO Box 427, Guthrie, KY 42234, Robert Penn Warren Birthplace Museum, PO Box 525, Guthrie, KY 42234, Pennyroyal Hospice, 220 Burley Ave., Hopkinsville, KY 42240 or Tennova Hospice-Clarksville, 647 Dunlop Lane Suite 117, Clarksville, TN 37040.
