Susan Whitehead Byars died Thursday, July 13, 2006 in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. She had been residing in nearby Morristown for nearly thirty years. Born on May 22, 1923 at Pleasant Hall, her family home in Kempsville, Princess Anne County, Virginia, Mrs. Byars was the daughter of the late Dr. and Mrs. Robert Edward Whitehead. Two brothers, Robert Edward Whitehead, Jr. and Philip Moncure Whitehead, and a sister, Elizabeth Whitehead Gray (Mrs. Neil I. Gray), preceded her in death. Mrs. Byars graduated from the College of William and Mary with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. She completed her graduate work at Columbia University in New York. After her marriage to Walton McLean Byars, Jr. of Tampa and their move to Dunedin, Florida, Mrs. Byars was a homemaker and active church and community volunteer, serving as a Girl Scout leader, board member of the Junior Ballet guild of Clearwater, and long-time Sunday School teacher at the First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin. A charter member of the Dunedin Service League, the Clearwater Jayceettes, and the Mary Custis Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), she served as president of those organizations, as well as the Clearwater Junior Woman's Club and the Upper Pinellas Girl Scouts. Mrs. Byars was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the National Society of Colonial Dames XVII Century. With a life-long interest in genealogy and history, she contributed historical information to Florida's Bicentennial Commission and took an active role in helping to preserve the original Andrews Memorial Chapel of the First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin. Her efforts also resulted in the preservation and restoration of her family home through the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. In Morristown, Mrs. Byars was an Area Coordinator with the Douglas-Cherokee Adult Reading Academy for several years. She also contributed many volunteer hours as a Rose Center Guild member, adult reading tutor, and participant in the pet therapy program at the Alzheimer's Lakeway Program and Services (ALPS) Center. In addition to the DAR and UDC, she was a member of Soma Sala Circle. A devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother, Mrs. Byars is survived by her three daughters, Barbara Beard (Mrs. John F. Beard, Jr.) and Susan Byars of Atlanta, and Katharine Knight (Mrs. J. R. Knight) of Gulf Breeze, Florida; five grandchildren, John F. Beard, III and Katharine Hamer (Mrs. Christopher M. Hamer) of Atlanta, James H. Foss, III, Anne Foss, and Sarah Foss of Gulf Breeze; and a great-granddaughter, McLean Hamer. In Morristown, the family received friends at Stetzer Funeral Home Friday, July 14 from 6-8 p.m., with a memorial service held Saturday, July 15 at 11 a.m. in Centenary United Methodist Church. Interment was at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the ALPS Center in Morristown. Arrangements by Stetzer Funeral Home of Morristown.

Obituary, Gulf Breeze News, July 27, 2006.