Rex Lamar Powell, Sr.

Published 10:22 am Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Rex Lamar (Buck) Powell, Sr., 85, of Vada Community, passed away at home on January 25, 2025. 

The funeral service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, January 31, 2025, at Morningside Baptist Church with Pastors Mike Everson, Johnny Roberts, and Conrad Salter officiating. Randyl Godwin, Phillip Martin, David McCurry, Kevin Strickland, Ashley Posey, Dan Bryant, and Kenneth Kelley will serve as pallbearers. 

The family will receive friends immediately following the service.  In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to: Whigham School Legacy of Leadership Scholarship Fund (C/O Becky Posey, 211 W. Broad Avenue, Whigham, GA 39897), Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes or Gideons International.

Rex Lamar Powell was born November 1, 1939, in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Gerald Lamar Powell and Maggie Golden Horn. He graduated from Bainbridge High School, Class of 1957. He attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and earned his Bachelor of Science in Education from Georgia Southern College and Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Valdosta State College.  Buck taught Industrial Arts at Mitchell County High School and served as Headmaster of the Oaks Academy in Brinson, Georgia, as a member of the Decatur County Board of Education, and as principal of Whigham School in Whigham, Georgia.  Upon his retirement in 2004, the faculty and staff of Whigham School established the Legacy of Leadership Award in his honor, which is presented annually to an outstanding 8^th grade graduate. He was a member of Morningside Baptist Church and served as a Gideon with Gideon’s International and as a member of the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Meal Team.

Buck lived almost his entire life in Decatur County and lived the past 56 years at the “Oak Hole” in Vada.  His happiest times were tending his garden and hunting there. He spent countless hours creating a welcoming environment for the deer and he was very disappointed that he spent the 2024 deer season in the hospital.  It was a topic of conversation with all the doctors who cared for him in the past months.  He and Sue enjoyed camping and meeting new friends in the parks and campgrounds. Buck loved children and senior adults. He spent many hours visiting shut-ins and providing transportation to church when needed.  He never met a stranger and always had a story to tell. 

Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Sue Ellen Harrell Powell; his children Jeff (Kim) Powell and Susan (Hugh) Lanier of Bainbridge, Anna (Miles) Henry of Perry, Georgia, and Rex (Amy) Powell, Jr., of Sharpsburg, Georgia; his grandchildren, Callum Henry, Margaret Henry, Jay Lanier, John David Powell, and Matthew Powell; his brother, David Powell, of Pine Grove Community, his sister, Pam Johnson, of Tallahassee; and a host of nieces and nephews.  He was preceded in death by his parents, Gerald Lamar Powell and Maggie Golden Horn Powell, and his brother, William Jefferson Powell.

The family would like to express their deepest appreciation to the wonderful caregivers of Kaye’s Caring Hands of Cairo and the incredible staff of Georgia Hospice.

Bryant Funeral Home, located at 105 N. Florida Street, is assisting the family with arrangements. (229-246-3321)