Martha Ann Stone

Mrs. Martha Ann Sims Stone, 90, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and resident of Blakely, Georgia passed away at her home on May 26, 2025. Ann was the widow of the late Judge Lowrey Standifer Stone of the Pataula Judicial Circuit. She will be interred in the family plot at the Blakely City Cemetery.

Ann was born in Havana, Gadsden County, Florida to the late William Herbert Sims and Laura Frances Carter Sims. The family moved to Troy, Alabama when she was two years old. There she attended elementary school at Pike County School. In the Fifth Grade the family moved to Blakely, Georgia where her father became the manager of D. M. Carter Manufacturing Company. Ann graduated from the Blakely Union High School. While in high school, Ann worked part-time for Accountant Woodrow Houston after school, and on Saturdays during tax season in the old First State Bank building on Court Square in Blakely. The Stone & Stone law firm was also on the same floor of that building. She became more acquainted with the then young attorney Lowrey Standifer Stone, a partner in Stone & Stone. After they got to know each other better, Col Wm. Lowrey Stone, the younger lawyer’s partner and father, asked Ann to come to work for Stone & Stone after graduation as a legal secretary and bookkeeper. In August 1952, Ann married the young attorney, Lowrey S. Stone. The couple resided in Blakely where she enjoyed raising their family.

Mrs. Stone volunteered as the leader of Cub and Boy Scout Club and the Camp Fire Girls. She volunteered at the school as a part-time assistant librarian and was soon hired as a full-time assistant librarian. When Red Cross started a program called Grey Ladies, Mrs. Stone worked one day each week at the school taking care of children who became sick, who were injured at school, or needed rest periods before their parents could come for them. She served as president of the local PTA group and served a term on the Early County Board of Education. She was an active member of the Blakely Church of Christ where she taught Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, organized many of the women’s programs, and wrote and published the Church’s weekly bulletin.

Upon her youngest completing middle school, Ann returned to work at the law firm Lowrey S. Stone, PC, where she was the administrator, bookkeeper, and legal secretary. She studied law at LaSalle University Correspondence College until the Georgia State Bar required candidates for the bar examination to show they were graduates from an approved law school where they had to attend classes in person. Therefore, it was futile for her to pursue a law degree. When her husband was appointed as Superior Court Judge for the Pataula Judicial Circuit, she was employed by William S. Stone, P.C. She worked there until she retired in 2019.

She leaves three children, William Sims Stone of Blakely, Dr John Lowrey Stone (Marie) of Simpsonville, SC, Nancy Stone Brown (Robert) of Blakely; 10 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. Ann was preceded in death by her husband, Judge Lowrey S. Stone, parents Herbert and Laura Frances Sims, a brother Herbert Edge Sims, and a sister, LeMay Sims Merritt.

Funeral Services will be held on Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 10:30 AM in the Chapel of Manry-Jordan-Hodges Funeral Home. The family will receive friends at the funeral chapel on Wednesday, May 28, 2025 from 6-8 PM. In lieu of flowers, contributions to Alzheimer’s Association ( alz.org) or The American Cancer Society (donate.cancer.org) are requested.