Nona Christine Akridge, 88, passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by her family and caregivers Sunday evening, March 10, 2024. She was born July 22, 1935 in Bowling Green, Kentucky to Emmett Garland and Marcella Matthews Taylor. The Taylor family soon moved to Marion, Kentucky where Nona grew up, graduating from Marion High School when she was 16.
Nona was a dedicated, passionate teacher. After attending Western Kentucky State College (now Western Kentucky University), Nona taught first at Crittenden County High School. There she met a handsome young typing teacher and basketball coach named Dean Akridge and they were married on May 17, 1958. Nona then accepted a position as an Extension Home Demonstration Agent for Caldwell and Crittenden Counties, and later became a Nutritionist for the Kentucky Health Department in Livingston and Crittenden Counties. Nona began teaching Home Economics at Lyon County High School in the mid-1960s and taught there until she retired in 1983.
Nona loved the women she taught with and she loved her students – all girls until she started teaching Bachelor’s Living to boys in the late 1970s. She coached track and the cheerleaders, was class advisor, directed school plays, built floats for the Founder’s Day parade,…,the list goes on and on. Nona especially loved serving as Advisor for the Future Homemakers of America (FHA). There is something ironic about a woman who taught home economics to so many young women during her three decades in the high school classroom having three sons! So, not surprisingly, Nona loved getting daughters when Jill, Michelle, and Andrea came into the family.
Nona and Dean had an amazing 63 years together – their love for each other was on display every single day. They were inseparable and everything was ‘Dean and Nona’. Nona’s support for Dean was a constant, whether it was a hot breakfast every morning, being a sounding board for business decisions, or hosting all the guests that Dean would invite home, many at the last minute! She did all those things on top of her job as a teacher, giving her sons early and important lessons about women as professionals.
Nona loved to travel and she and Dean had wonderful trips to Germany, Australia, Mexico, the Rockies, New England, Florida and so many other places – traveling with friends or to visit friends. They could make an adventure out of a trip to a 4-H speech contest or a basketball tournament.
Nona was an amazing cook. Period. She loved to cook and while her boys were in school, few things made her happier than a big group of their teenage friends coming over to the house and devouring ridiculous quantities of her cooking. Store parties, after-prom parties, birthday parties, showers, anniversary receptions, Nona knew how to throw them all – and she did, in her own wonderful style!
Nona is survived by her three sons: Jay (wife Michelle), Paul (wife Jill), and Lance (wife Andrea). Nona has 7 grandchildren: Logan (wife Jennifer), Olivia (husband Luke), Sean (wife Liz), Samantha, Bryce, Luke, and Elise; and 5 great grandchildren: Audrey, Henry, Charles, Samuel, and Jack. She was preceded in death by her husband, Dean, her parents, Emmett and Marcella Taylor, and her brother, Donald Taylor. The family would like to express their thanks to all who remained close to Nona as her health declined. A very special thanks to her caregivers – Melissa, Beth, Jane, Jennifer, Pauletta, Stephanie, and Karen. We will be forever grateful for the loving care you provided our ‘Nana’ – she was blessed to have a group of angels around her who loved her like their own mothers.
Memorial gifts can be made to the Lyon County Retired Teacher’s Scholarship Fund or the Dean and Nona Akridge Family Scholarship at Murray State. Checks for the Lyon County Retired Teacher’s Scholarship Fund can be mailed to 1808 US Hwy. 641 North, Eddyville, KY, 42038. Checks for the Murray State scholarship should be made payable to MSU Foundation and sent to the Murray State Office of Development, 200 Heritage Hall, Murray, KY 42071 or you may give online at MurrayState.edu/givenow and designating the Akridge Family Scholarship.
Visitation will be Wednesday, March 13, 2024 from 4:00 pm until 7:00 pm at Lakeland Funeral Home in Eddyville. Funeral services will be at 1:00 pm on Thursday, March 14, 2024, at Lakeland Funeral Home with Eddyville Baptist Youth Minister Jay Brown officiating. Burial will follow in Fredonia Cemetery.
You may leave a message for the family at: www.lakelandchapel.com.
