CULPEPPER (Bell), Sarah Beatrice
Mrs. Sarah Beatrice Bell Culpepper was born on June 17, 1924 in McGregor, Georgia, in Montgomery County, to Elvera Cook Bell (deceased) and Joe C. Bell (deceased). Sarah was the firstborn of their four children. Her three siblings are Jewel (deceased), Sadie, and Iris (deceased). Sarah attended school in Montgomery County, Georgia, and graduated from the Dickerson Training School in 1941, and attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she majored in mathematics and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree on June 6, 1945. After college graduation in 1945, Sarah "Beatrice"/"Bea" Bell taught school for several years in the late 1940's, including serving on the faculty of her high school alma mater, Dickerson Training School. In the 1950's, Sarah began a career as a social worker for the State of Georgia Department of Public Welfare working in the areas of the City of Atlanta and Fulton County, and eventually retiring from the Department of Family and Children Services in the 1980's.
Sarah was baptized as a youth at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Ailey, Georgia, which is also the church her parents attended and faithfully served in. After marriage and moving to Atlanta, she attended Allen Temple A.M.E. Church. Sarah later worshipped at various other A.M.E. Church congregations, where her husband, Rev. Dr. Gaines W. Culpepper, Sr., an ordained itinerant elder in that denomination, would be assigned to serve as pastor in the Sixth Episcopal District of Georgia of the A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church. Sarah enjoyed watching Christian television shows, reading her Bible, listening to Christian music, reading publications on Christianity and a wide variety of subjects beyond the religious, exploring travel opportunities, healthy living activities, meeting and socializing with people, and interacting with her children, grandchildren and other relatives in her extended family. On January 11, 1949, Sarah Beatrice Bell married Gaines W. Culpepper (deceased). They first met in Atlanta when she was a Spelman College student taking a mathematics class at Morris Brown College and he was a Morris Brown College student studying business education in the 1940's. When Sarah was teaching at the Dickerson Training School she met Gaines again, who was teaching there also, and they eventually married and had five children together (three sons and two daughters).
Mrs. Sarah Beatrice Bell Culpepper passed away on January 22, 2024 at 8:27 PM, at the home of one of her sons (Grady) in Ellenwood, Georgia in Clayton County, where she had been residing since her release from the hospital on July 8, 2023. Sarah is survived by five children, Rev. Dr. Gaines W. Culpepper, Jr. (Doris), Dr. Grady S. Culpepper, Rev. Dr. Elvera L. Culpepper, Carlton W. Culpepper (Camilla Ann Rakestraw), and Evelyn J. Culpepper; seven grandchildren, Dr. Lachionte' Culpepper (Todd Thomas), Charie Eason (Tarron), Dorian Culpepper, Victrecia Hines (Rhavay, Sr.), Victor E. Lucas, Jr., Evelyn G. Culpepper-Lucas, Carlton S. Culpepper-Lucas; 17 great-grandchildren; one sister, Sadie Smith (Greene/deceased); one brother-in-law, George Brumfield (Jewel/deceased); four nieces, Linda Hoyle, Yvonne Owens (LeRoy), Pamela Sears, Jackie Tolbert (Tom); one step-nephew, Gregory Scarlett (Patricia); and numerous other great-nieces and nephews, relatives and friends.
Celebration of Life service for Mrs. Sarah B. Culpepper is scheduled for February 1, 2024 at 11:00 AM, at Fountain of Faith Missionary Baptist Church, 6712 W. Fayetteville Road, Riverdale, Georgia 30296. Rev. Reginald B. Newman, Senior Pastor; Rev. Dr. John Paul Ruth, Officiant.
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