AREA OBITUARIES - Alice Mae Fields

Alice Mae Fields, 89, of Fulton, Ky., passed away January 11, 2022 after a brief residence at Fulton Nursing and Rehabilitation.

Alice was born July 8, 1932 in Cottage Grove, Tenn., to Odie Fields and Lucille "Lucy" Prince Fields.

Alice was a farmer's daughter with deep family roots on both sides of her family in Western Kentucky and West Tennessee.

Alice spent her early years watching corn, tobacco, cotton and milk cows grow on her father's small family farm in Dukedom, Ky.

She and her brother Dallas attended a one room schoolhouse. She once remarked that "we grew up as country people".

Her Dresden High School yearbook indicates, however, that she harbored dreams of leaving farm life to own a beauty shop in New York City. After graduation, Alice worked for a Fulton department store, and helped care for her parents.

Alice had a phenomenal memory, great perception, surprising wit and a kind heart. She enjoyed gospel music and regularly worked word puzzles. She was also an avid newspaper reader, subscribing to Fulton, Dresden and Union City papers. Alice said she liked to read about the lives of family members and former classmates.

Alice was known in her family as a lady of stubborn independence. She had lived alone in Fulton since the death of her mother in 1994.

She gamely struggled with scoliosis, a painful, congenital curvature of the spine. She would often dismiss her disability, saying that "it was something I was born with".

Through the years, the kindness and generosity of family, friends, school mates and many Fulton area folks in her church, housing and business communities helped Alice remain independent in her own home.

In many ways Alice's life reflects what a small community of caring people can do and be for an aging woman alone in life.

Alice's life also represents her family's last goodbye to her generation.

Alice was loved and is missed.

Alice is preceded in death by her parents and her three older brothers, Jack Fields and Leon Fields, longtime residents of Fulton, Ky., and Dallas Fields of Smyrna, Ga.; as well as her nephew, Mark Caldwell Fields, also a longtime resident of Fulton, Ky.

Alice is survived by nieces, Peggie F. Highsmith, Kitsap County, Wash., and Jeannie F. Hollifield, Smyrna, Ga.; and nephews, Stan Fields, Louisville, Ky., and Ken Fields, Phoenix, Ariz.; as well as a grandniece and grandnephew and great-grand nieces and nephews.

A graveside service for Alice Mae Fields will be held 11 a.m., October 6, at Enon Cemetery near Fulton. There will be no visitation held at the Hornbeak Funeral home and friends are asked to meet at the cemetery at the hour of service.