Mary Fenton

Mary Ann Hampton Morrison Fenton, 94, died peacefully on Friday, January 22, at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Lynn and Avery White, in Bainbridge, Georgia. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 PM on Sunday, January 31, 2010, at First Presbyterian Church. Interment will follow at Oak City Cemetery, Bainbridge, with her grandsons, Kenneth Jakob Smeds, Kevin Fenton Smeds, Murray Fenton White, Brian Avery White, Iain Morrison White, and Daniel Willis White serving as active pallbearers. The family will also receive friends at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Lynn and Avery White, 110 East Evans Street, Bainbridge, on Saturday, January 30, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. Mrs. Fenton was born on September 5, 1915, in Forfar, Scotland, daughter of John Wishart Morrison and Bella Jane Gibb Morrison. She was married to Captain Leonard Murray Fenton on March 27, 1940, in Wellington, New Zealand. Following graduation, Mrs. Fenton was a journalist in the news office of The Courier, Dundee, Scotland's largest newspaper. In 1940, she sailed on the last ship which carried passengers out of Great Britain at the beginning of World War II in order to marry her fiancée of two years. Her daughters, Mary Lynn Fenton White and Patricia Ann Fenton Smeds, were born in Wellington, New Zealand. Mrs. Fenton traveled extensively with her husband, owner of a marine surveying company, Murray Fenton and Associates, which had offices in London and throughout the world. Prior to living in San Pedro, California, Mrs. Fenton lived in both Scotland and Burma for a number of years. She was devoted to her family, church, and the communities in which she lived. An active member of the Presbyterian Church, Mrs. Fenton taught Sunday school and served as both a deacon and elder. She was the first female Session Clerk of The First Presbyterian Church in San Pedro, California. In 1966, she became a member, as are both of her daughters, of PEO, an international organization which supports higher education for women, and she was an active member until her death. She also served as president of Rotary Ann's, the female support group for Rotarians. Mrs. Fenton is survived by her daughters and sons-in- law, Mary Lynn and Willis Avery White of Bainbridge, Georgia, and Patricia Ann and Roger Lawence Smeds of Stuart, Florida; her grandchildren, Kenneth Jakob and Rhaina Edwards Smeds of Port St. Lucie, Florida, Kevin Fenton Smeds and Lissa Moran of San Francisco, California, Murray Fenton and Renee Eakin White of Tallahassee, Florida, Brian Avery and Elizabeth Semancik White of Atlanta, Georgia, Iain Morrison and Christina Gordon White of Atlanta, Georgia, and Daniel Willis White, Augusta, Georgia and Ashley Heard, Bainbridge, Georgia; and three great-grandchildren, Eli Thomas Smeds, Rhenn Morrison Smeds and Fiona Elizabeth White.