Martha Krech's Obituary
Martha Jeanne Brasher Krech, of Bartlett, TN, passed away on January 2, 2020. She was preceded in death by her parents, John Arthur Brasher and Eula Frances Brasher; loving husband, James Edward Krech; and son, David Lee Krech.
She is survived by her son, John Michael (Patsy) Krech; daughter, Kathy (Rickie) Cooke; grandchildren, Ryan (Aimee) Krech, Emily Krech (Seth) Mayne; Olivia Cooke; and great-grandchildren, Adelaide Krech, William Krech, and Evie Mayne.
Martha was born in Memphis, TN, on January 26, 1930, and enjoyed a happy childhood with her parents, and, during her mother’s years of confinement with tuberculosis, in the home of her beloved aunt Laura Brasher and grandmother Salama Lee Brasher True. Martha was a treasured only-child, who also enjoyed frequent visits to her maternal grandparents, John and Bessie Huggins, who lived in the then semi-rural part of town known as Berclair. Martha was a church-goer all her life, from the cradle roll at the one-time Central Cumberland Presbyterian Church near downtown, through many years at Highland Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and for the past 25 years at Raleigh Presbyterian, now Grace Presbyterian Church, Bartlett. She said she never remembered a time when she did not know Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She loved teaching young children in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, as well as learning and serving others with the women’s groups in each church. Martha graduated from Central High School in May 1948 and married James Krech on September 12, 1948. It was Martha’s joy to be a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, and her children “rise up and called her blessed.” (Proverbs 31:28). Beyond home and church, Martha enjoyed several special family trips including the beaches at Pensacola, FL, where her father was stationed during World War II; Caribbean cruises with her mother and daughter; a European trip which included tracing her husband’s World War II route in Belgium, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic; “running down a mountainside in Switzerland;” a spiritually transforming journey to the Greek islands in 2015, and, with 20 family members, seeing the total eclipse of the sun in east Tennessee in 2017. She bore her final illness with equanimity, grace, and good cheer, and left us, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” (1 Cor. 15:52) on January 2, 2020, a few days short of her 90th birthday.
Visitation will take place Friday, January 10, 2020, from 4:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. at Memorial Park Funeral Home. After a private committal service, a worship service will be held at Grace Presbyterian Church, 6671 Yale Road, on Saturday, January 11, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials are encouraged to Grace Presbyterian Church, 6671 Yale Road, Bartlett, TN 38134.
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