William Stephen Pritchett (Bill Pritchett), of Crandall, Georgia - Biography

William Stephen "Bill" Pritchett was born April 13, 1930, in Crandall, Murray, Georgia. His parents were Arvil Henry Pritchett (son of Stephen T. and Alice Murray Pritchett) and Sudie Headrick (daughter of William "Bill" and Sarah Quincy Davis Headrick). Bill was an only child. His mother died of tuberculosis on December 17, 1913, when Bill was just a baby. Sudie's sister, Leona, married Arvil Pritchett's brother, James Walter, so she was Bill's aunt twice over. Leona was also to die of tuberculosis, just three years after her sister died. Like many men in Murray County, Bill's father was a farmer, and saw hard times during the Great Depression. At times, the family share-cropped, moving from farm to farm as the crops came in. Arvil Pritchett died in 1941, when Bill was ten years old, going on eleven. Bill lived with his grandparents, Stephen and Alice (Murray) Pritchett, for a time. Steve and Alice were kind-hearted people, and took in several of their grandchildren. Steve was a Kansas-born man, whose parents had moved from the North Georgia mountains to the midwest after the Civil War, but soon moved back to the mountains. In spite of the tragedy in his childhood, Bill had a positive outlook on life. He was a good story teller with a wonderful, hearty laugh. He was a truck driver. On days off, he liked to go fishing. He married Louise Harris, daughter of Thomas Rufus Harris and Sybil Frances Pullen (a Murray County couple, who had married there on May 25, 1931). Louise was born April 18, 1933, in the Temple Grove community of Murray County, Georgia, where she and her husband settled, raised a family, and lived until her death on May 24, 2009. The couple had three children, Sudie, Judy, and Timothy Pritchett. Bill was a good friend to his older cousin, Fred Thomas Pritchett, of Crandall, whose father, Willie Lee Pritchett, was a brother of Bill's father, Arvil. Fred and Bill were first cousins on the Pritchett side, and were third cousins on the Headrick side. Fred's father died when Fred was fifteen. Fred's mother was Esther (Headrick) Pritchett, daughter of William Abraham Lincoln Headrick. W.A.L. Headrick's father, William Matthew Headrick, was the brother of John Scott Headrick, Bill's great-grandfather. Bill Pritchett died in Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia, on Friday, February 10, 2017.