By Staff
LAFAYETTE, La. - Alice Chapman McClelland Farrar passed away Monday, April 12, 2010 in Lafayette, La. after a long illness.
She was a longtime resident of Atmore. “Miss Alice” was born in Birmingham but moved to Atmore when she was 12. She skipped grades so she was the youngest member of her senior class at Escambia County School. She won an academic scholarship to Rhodes College in Memphis, where she played Alpha Omricon Pi and was “Most Beautiful”. During WWII she taught elementary school in Escambia County, Fla. where she was introduced to young Navy pilot, Charles McClelland. They married in 1944, and after the war moved to Pa. where their two daughters, Karen and Alice Anne, were born. In 1953 they moved to Montgomery and then Gainesville, Ga. where there third daughter, Nancy was born. Alice, Charles and girls moved to Texas where Charles was a corporate executive and Alice was a member of the Woman’s Club of Fort Worth and First Presbyterian Church. After Charles’s death in 1974 Alice moved back to Atmore to be with her mother, Gladys W. Chapman. She also married Fielden “Pete” Farrar, a childhood sweetheart. They were married for 34 years until his death in 2009. She and Pete were active in the First United Methodist Church of Atmore, having the joy of seeing all six grandchildren baptized there.
She was a beloved mother to her daughters and “MiMi” to her grandchildren, and friend to many. She was also and activist for animal and human rights, known throughout the community as deeply interested in the Humane Society of Escambia County and the United Methodist Children’s Home in Selma. She was also an active member of the Daughters of American Revolution and the Rhodes College Alumni Association.
She is survived by her three daughters and son-in-laws, Dr. Rick and Nancy Matis of Lafayette, La., Alice Anne and Robert Vargo of Huntsville and Dr. Jerry and Karen Cohen of the Tampa Bay area in Florida; six grandchildren, David Powers of Portland, Ore., Michael McClelland Cohen of Winter Park, Fla., Chapman, Kathryn Bailey and Griffin Matis of Lafayette and New Orleans, La. and Lindsey Vargo of Tuscaloosa. She also had a stepdaughter, Martha Farrar Pickett of Fairhope and a stepson, Alvin Farrar of Tallahassee, Fla.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 15, 2010 from Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home Chapel. Interment will follow in Oak Hill Cemetery. Family will receive friends from 1 p.m. until service time Thursday.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home, Inc. is in charge of all arrangements.