Samuel Lewis Blount

Samuel Lewis Blount, age 91 of Gainesville, Georgia, passed away Sunday, March 15, 2020. He was born in Thomaston, Georgia on December 12, 1928 to Samuel Artis Blount and Velma Barner Blount. He was the sixth and youngest child in that Jones Avenue house having an older brother, Billy, and four older sisters, Dove, Doris, Jackie and Betty. They were an incredibly loving family, and all lived close enough to each other geographically to visit each other frequently all their lives. In fact, more than one of “the Blount siblings” could be found eating lunch together on any given Thursday at Norris’ Restaurant in Thomaston even when the eldest of them were in their 90’s.

Sam graduated from R. E. Lee High School in Thomaston in 1946, then moved to Atlanta where he graduated from Georgia State University, and where he worked for the Coca-Cola Company for over twenty-five years, retiring in 1993. Sam sang with a barbershop quartet in Atlanta for decades and was President of the Atlanta Chapter of Barbershop Quartets for a time.

Sam married Dorothy Brock Millner on November 21, 1987. They made their home in Gainesville where Sam was a sustaining member of the Believers Band, a brass band in Gainesville which still performs regularly, and in which he played the trombone into 2019. Sam and Dorothy were devoted members of the Gainesville First United Methodist Church where they were well-known not only for their faithfulness to the church, but for their vocal talent in the choir. Music was clearly Sam’s favorite pursuit outside of work. His voice, musical talent, and affable, kind and smiling character will be missed by everyone who knew him.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother James William Blount, sisters Dove Blount Kersey, Doris Blount Huckabee, Jaqueline Blount Barron, and Elizabeth Blount Stephens, two nieces Carole Kersey Lark and Patricia Kersey Valle, and nephew Larry Preston Kersey. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, step-daughter from a previous marriage Victoria Marlow Kells, of Lawrenceville, GA, step-daughters Anne Millner Ostholthoff and Patricia Millner Holder, of Atlanta, GA, and step-son Guy Wesley Millner, Jr., of Atlanta, GA, and devoted nieces and nephews, William Powell Stephens, of Lansdale, PA, Joyce McKenney Duncan, of Birmingham, AL, Charles Preston Stephens, of Cody WY, Jane Huckabee Scott, of Tallahassee, FL, Suzanne Blount Bowles, of Woodbury, GA, March McKenney Burnette, of Columbus, GA, and Sally Stephens Westmoreland, of Atlanta, GA.

In Sam’s memory donations may be made to the First Gainesville United Methodist Church Music Department or the Believer’s Band through the North Georgia Community Foundation. No Services will be held at this time. Those wishing to send online condolences to the family may do so at littledavenport.com.  Little & Davenport Funeral Home and Crematory, Gainesville, is in charge of arrangements.