Funeral services for Mr. Talmadge Tidwell, 100, of Alexandria, will be held on Saturday, January 14, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. at Anniston Memorial Funeral Home. Dr. Tommy Miller will be officiating the service. Burial will follow the service in Anniston Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Saturday from 1-3 p.m.

Talmadge was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Ernestine Spurlin Tidwell; three grandchildren, Ashley Tidwell, Angela Tidwell, and Michelle Tidwell; his daughter-in-law, Beverly Tidwell; and his siblings, Mary Simpson, Eujenia Tapley, Dean Kellum, Sue Yarbrough, Eldredge Tidwell, Mancel Tidwell, Valera Tidwell, and Lila Mapp.

Left to cherish the memory of Talmadge are his sons, Kenneth Tidwell (Barbara) and Ernie Tidwell; three grandchildren, Brandon Tidwell (Jennifer), Brian Tidwell (Christie), and Shawna Tidwell; six great-grandchildren, Ragan Yanuszeski (Mark), Karly Martin (Chris), Madison Tidwell, James Harris, Alec Harris, and Cody Hollingsworth (Brittany); four great-great-grandchildren, Asher Hollingsworth, Calix Hollingsworth, Leia Hollingsworth, and Marshall Yanuszeski, who is due in March; his sisters, Glenda Carter and Helen Lindsey; and several nieces and nephews.

While surrounded by members of his loving family, Talmadge passed peacefully from his physical home into his heavenly home, on January 11th, 2023, at 1:10 p.m. Born at Delta, Alabama in Clay County on October 11th, 1922, Talmadge was the adored son of a very poor, but loving Christian family. He was a member of the Greatest Generation and lived most of his life in Calhoun County. Talmadge often said that he and his family were so poor they did not know there was a depression. He and his family lived as tenant farmers, never owning a piece of land, a house, or even a car. He told that as a boy he picked cotton bare-footed with frost on the ground. Living in Barfield, Talmadge graduated from Lineville High School and at the age of 17, joined the Civilian Conservation Corp to help support his family. Talmadge was sent to California to help fight forest fires and worked for less than $1.00 a day, being required to send most of his earnings home to help his family in need. Talmadge came back to Oxford and was then drafted into the Army Air Force and was sent to England as a belly gunner on a B24 Liberator. He flew in 35 missions over Germany and occupied France. Two of those missions were flown on D-Day. Talmadge came home after his missions and married the love of his life, Ernestine Spurlin, and was married to her for 63 years. While in Oxford, he and Ernestine has two boys, Kenneth “Sonny” and Ernie. Talmadge then went on to take a job at JC Pennys and in later years at Sears & Roebuck, where he worked for 38 years. In 1958, with his wife, Ernestine, and their two boys, Talmadge moved to Alexandria and built a house across from the high school. He and his family enjoyed living there and became very active within the school as a parent and president of PTO, then a School Trustee, and also the President of the Sportsmen Club. Talmadge was one of the founding members of the Alexandria Fire Department and was a member of the Fire Department Board. He and his wife were members of Mt. Zion Baptist Church where he served as a teacher, Sunday School Director, and Deacon. Talmadge loved to garden and had a large garden behind his house every years until the age of 92. After his wife died in 2011, Talmadge would visit the cemetery every day for eight plus years, taking a flower to her grave each visit. He only stopped visiting his wife’s grave when his health would not allow him to make that daily visit. Talmadge truly loved his wife and missed her greatly. He was a humble man and was loved by all who knew him. Talmadge loved his family, and they dearly loved him and for this he will be truly missed.