Clara “Granny” Atkins Penland, 96, of Pensacola, daughter of the late Robert and Johanna Haney Atkins, died peacefully with her family around her, at the Solace Center in Asheville, on Friday February 9, 2018.
Clara served as the dietitian at the Burnsville Hospital for many years, where the smell of her cinnamon rolls or her chocolate dumplings brought everyone to her kitchen to have a taste. She was a lifelong seamstress, who sewed many dresses for her grandchildren as well as many wedding dresses throughout the community. She was a member of Laurel Branch Baptist Church in Pensacola.
Clara was proceeded in death by her husband of 42 years: Bill Penland, who died in 1979; a daughter: Elaine Penland McIntosh; a son: Harold Dean Penland; a granddaughter: Kimberly Renee Penland; a brother: Bud Atkins; and two sisters: Alma Peek and Grace Ray.
Left to cherish her memories are her daughter: Barbara Peek and husband, Grady; a son-in-law: Claude McIntosh; a daughter-in-law: Mozelle Laws Penland; six grandchildren: Vicki Riddle and husband, Mike, Susan Pittman and Carroll, Teena Fox and husband, Jeff, Mike Penland and wife Karen, Kevin Penland and wife Heather, Ronnie McIntosh and wife, Lisa; 19 great grandchildren; 18 great-great grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held on at 2:30 PM Sunday, February 11, 2018, in the Chapel of Holcombe Brothers Funeral Home. Rev. Ray Strickland will officiate. Burial will follow in the Penland/Allen Cemetery on Cattail Creek. The family will receive friends 1 hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to Hospice of Yancey County, 856 Georges Fork Road, Burnsville, NC 28714, or Laurel Branch Baptist Church, 12 Pensacola School Road, Burnsville, NC 28714.
