June 20, 1943 – June 27, 2026
Sarah Eva Furr Zimmerman, 83, died suddenly on Saturday June 27 in Sewanee after a joyful week at home that included her birthday with family, outdoor time in her beloved woods and numerous visits with friends.
Survivors include the love of her life, husband Lt. Colonel (Ret) Donald Zimmerman; two daughters Elizabeth B. Hickman (John) of Nashville and Catherine B. Ballenger (Craig) of Hendersonville; granddaughter Ava Brooke Ballenger of Hendersonville; sister Leita Patton (Jerry) of Oxford, Mississippi; brother Charles Furr (Billie) of Madison, Mississippi; a beloved cat “KW”; and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and great-nieces and nephews from Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and Switzerland. Her parents were the late Francis and Hazie Furr of Pontotoc, Mississippi.
A native of Mississippi, Sarah Eva was raised in Pontotoc and enjoyed an idyllic small-town childhood, which she was grateful for and that she cherished. She graduated from Pontotoc High School, where she met her future husband Don Zimmerman. She also won a county-wide beauty crown, Queen of the Forest, an early honor that not only reflected her beauty, but her love of nature, including the trees she loved so much around the home she and her beloved Don built in 2003. They traveled different paths at first but when Don returned from Vietnam their mothers put them back in touch. She always said that it was here on the mountain that she truly felt at home.
Sarah Eva graduated from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education and a Master of Social Science degree. She obtained an additional Master’s degree in Education from the University of Memphis.
A national award-winning and beloved history teacher, she also participated in an archaeology field school at the University of Virginia and earned a National Endowment for the Humanities grant/summer at the University of California Santa Barbara’s School of Religion. While in college, she was present during the integration struggles at Ole Miss and used her experience as a powerful first-person teaching tool with her students, always telling them: “We are all living history every day.”
Sarah Eva taught U.S. history and social studies in Minneapolis, Honolulu, New Orleans, Brentwood, TN and Germantown High School in Memphis as well as at the University of Memphis. She traveled extensively and spent time in Japan, England, France and took many student groups to Europe. In 1997 she was awarded the prestigious Belz-Lipman Holocaust Educator of the Year Award. In 2004, she was recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) as the Outstanding American History Teacher in Tennessee.
Sarah Eva loved being outside in the forest, where she connected to God in nature and enjoyed the wind in the trees and observing flowers and birds. She served as former Chaplain for the Judge David Campbell Chapter of the DAR in Chattanooga and volunteered at Monteagle Elementary School. Sarah Eva loved gardening, cooking, reading and walking in the woods at any time of the year. She always made everyone feel welcome and was a force of nature – a friend to many and an advocate for kindness. As her beloved sister said: “Everything was always more fun with Sarah Eva.”
A celebration of life will be held at 1 PM on Saturday, August 1 at Morton Memorial United Methodist Church in Monteagle. In lieu of flower memorial contributions may be made to the Morton Memorial United Methodist Church Food Ministry in Monteagle.
Moore-Cortner Funeral Home, 300 First Ave NW, Winchester, TN 37398, (931)-967-2222, www.moorecortner.com.
