Updated: 2/28/20

Glover Minatra, aged 96, former long-time resident of Columbia, died Thursday, February 27, 2020 in Johnson City, Tennessee. Mrs. Minatra and her husband James moved to Jefferson City in 2005 to be near their children but continued to call Columbia home and Riverside United Methodist Church their Church. Mr. Minatra died in 2009 and Mrs. Minatra moved to Johnson City in November of 2014.

Graveside services will be held at Polk Memorial Gardens on Monday March 2, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. with Tony Brown officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Riverside United Methodist Church, 313 Sixth Avenue, Columbia 38401 or your charity of choice. Notes of sympathy may be sent to www.oakesandnichols.com.

The Giles county native was the daughter of the late James Samuel Glover and Willie M. Glover. She grew up on a dairy farm. She was a graduate of Bunker Hill High School in Giles County. She married the love of her life, James Storey Minatra, on May 23, 1941, just before he joined the U.S. Army to serve in World War II. During the war, Mrs. Minatra worked at Woldridge Drug Store. 

After the war, Mrs. Minatra assisted her husband in running several Stuckey's stores, including the one in Columbia. Travelers stopped in to taste her homemade spreads including pimento cheese and ham salad, and to admire the cherry tomato plants growing in the planters in front of the store. She was a faithful member of Riverside United Methodist Church for over 60 years, and enjoyed working in the church kitchen to prepare meals for fellowship events. Mrs. Minatra made the best scratch yeast rolls in the South. She was a great mother to her children and friend to all, especially her church family and her neighbors. She was the first one to lend a helping hand in times of trouble, usually with a casserole dish in hand. She loved tending to her flowers and working in her garden.

Those left to cherish her memory include a daughter and son-in-law, Brenda Faye and Robert (Bob) Fort of Woodstock Virginia; Son and daughter-in-law Jim and Terri Minatra of Johnson City; grandchildren Emily Fort (Jeff Kovatchitch) and Susan Fort (Frank Dammon) and her precious great grandson Zach Dammon, age 4, all of Reston, Virginia; Sisters Mrs. Billie Rose of Pulaski and Mrs. Frances Harwell of Ardmore and brother James Edward Glover of Pulaski. She was preceded in death by her husband James, a daughter BonnieMargaret Lynn Minatra, and an infant brother C.W. Glover.

Active pallbearers will be selected from family and friends.