Martha Mae Palmer, daughter of the late Leslie Spence Day and Ethelyn Dillingham Day was born on January 1, 1928 in Rural Dexter and went to be with Jesus on January 23, 2015 at the Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau at the age of 87.
She was born a New Year’s baby in the year of 1928. She liked to say that it was so cold that night the calves’ tails froze off. She was raised in a Christ centered home in Dexter and she remained in her beliefs in Christ and the love of small town bonds. Mrs. Palmer graduated valedictorian of her class. Mrs. Palmer met her husband on a Greyhound bus while traveling to college. It was love at first sight that lasted sixty-eight years of holy matrimony.
Mrs. Palmer had many interests during her lifetime. She loved working in her flower gardens and yard, cooking, crocheting, sewing, and loved preparing home cooked meals for her family and friends. She loved traveling with her husband as snowbirds and living the RV life as well as visiting her family in Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Mrs. Palmer was a child of the most high God, and a lover of the scripture Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. She learned about the love of Christ Jesus early on in the First United Methodist Church and she remained in this faith, where for many years, she dedicated her life to the children’s choir, the bell choir, United Methodist Women, and making sure her children all came to know and love our Heavenly Father. She shared her faith with many loving friends and family members. She later joined the Second General Baptist Church, now called The Risen Church in Dexter, where she found comfort in the message, and being washed in the blood of Jesus Christ.
On September 17, 1946 she was united in marriage to Dr. Leonard Palmer in Dexter. Dr. Palmer survives of their home in Dexter.
Besides her husband she is survived by her three children, Linda Palmer Cox of Dexter, Len and wife Marty Palmer of Crystal River, Florida and Pam and husband Cary Ivins of Hermosa, South Dakota; by three grandchildren, Leonard Palmer III, Bart Cox and Amanda Agnitsch; by eight great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren; and by many faithful friends and relatives.
Besides her parents she was preceded in death by one sister, Barbara Jane Tardiff and by one grandchild, John Jeffrey Cox.
Friends may call at the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter on Monday, January 26, 2015 from 5:00 P.M. until 8:00 P.M.
Funeral services will be conducted on Tuesday, January 26, 2015 at 2:00 P.M. in the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Chapel with Rev. Steve Tippen officiating.
Interment will follow in the Dexter Cemetery.
