Flonnie Bell Starr lived a long life of service to her family and to her church.
‘Ma Bell', as she was affectionately known, was a longtime member of Greater Community Church in Atlanta, spending much of her time on the mother board. She worked as a domestic for many years to help raise her six sons and two daughters. And, family and friends say, Mrs. Starr could throw down in the kitchen.
"When we were growing up, she made sure nobody wanted for anything," said daughter Annie Shepherd. "She always made us stick by each other and take care of each other. And she treated us all the same. There were no big I's and little yous."
Mrs. Starr, of Decatur, died of heart failure Tuesday at DeKalb Medical Center after 11 months in the Golden Living Nursing Home. She was 90.
Flonnie Bell Dodson Starr was born in Ellenwood in 1921 into a sharecropping family of 13 children. As a child, she was somewhat sickly and so she helped her mother clean and cook at home while her siblings worked in the fields. Those skills would serve her well in life.
Mrs. Starr married William Penn Starr and settled in Ellenwood until 1962, when they moved their family of eight children to Atlanta. She didn't have much formal education, so to help make ends meet, Mrs. Starr worked as a domestic in Ellenwood and in the Peachtree Battle area of Atlanta. When Mr. Starr died in 1985, she carried on as the family's strong matriarch, family members said.
"She took pride in her work" as a domestic, said Annie Shepherd. The families she worked for, "loved her like she was family."
Her house was always perfectly clean, Shepherd said. "She taught us to be that way, and boy could she iron."
Rev. Clarence Montgomery, former pastor at Greater Community, said Mrs. Starr "was a sweet, humble woman who loved her church." He will give Mrs. Starr's eulogy at her service at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Greater Community, 121 Flat Shoals Ave. in Atlanta.
Mrs. Starr attended Greater Community for 40-plus years. On the mother board she relished her role as mentor to the younger church women, said Rev. Montgomery, now pastor at New Brown Chapel Baptist Church. "She taught the young ladies how to be good mothers at home and at church, and how to be spiritual."
Friends and family always knew they could find good eats at Ma Bell's house.
Rev. Montgomery ticked off some of his favorite dishes, like collard greens and macaroni and cheese.
"She reached way back down home when she cooked," he said.
Pudding cakes, jelly rolls and blackberry cobbler were her special sweet treats, said daughter Hazel Terry. "She taught us that you hadn't cooked dinner unless you had a dessert."
"And don't forget her fried chicken and homemade biscuits," said son Raymond Starr. "If she saw me coming, she'd make biscuits just for me."
Mrs. Starr was warm and welcoming to everyone, he said. "When I first got married, she treated my wife, Martha, like she was her daughter."
Mrs. Starr sacrificed much to ensure the family's happiness, said granddaughter Renee Starr. "Everyone who came into contact with her felt the surge of happiness and joy flow through her unto them."
Survivors include daughters Hazel Terry and Annie Shepherd and sons William, Raymond, Clyde, Arthur, and Charles Starr; 27 grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren and 15 great-great grandchildren.
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