Erma Fay Crotty Meadows

Erma Fay Crotty Meadows of Jumping Branch was reunited with her beloved husband of 65 years, Beecher Meadows, Jr. on June 10, 2025.

Erma was born December 19, 1931 at Pinoak, WV to the late Charles Daniel and Dulcie McComas Crotty.

She graduated from Hinton High School in 1948, and married Beecher on June 27, 1948. While living in Beckley, she worked at Raleigh County Library and G.C. Murphy Co. When she moved back to Summers County, she continued working at Murphy’s in several positions: sales, cashier, bookkeeper, assistant manager and as a traveling set-up crew member that assisted with new store openings and remodelings. She worked as the assistant manager of Ames Department Store until her retirement. She was elected President of the Summers County Community Educational Outreach Service (CEOS). She attended their yearly conferences at Jackson’s Mill and taught cooking classes. She also attended their National Conference at Parkersburg, co-teaching a hors d’oeuvres cooking class. She and her club sponsored the Water Festival’s Quilt Show and was Partners in Education at the Jumping Branch Elementary School. She was awarded the Beckley Area CEOS Outstanding Award for her service and commitment to her community. She was also featured in a five page article in WVU’s Extension Service Annual Report. Erma helped organize Summers County “Walk For Her Lifetime” breast cancer fundraiser and was active in both Raleigh and Summers counties to promote early breast cancer detection. Erma was an active member of Bluestone Baptist Church where she spent countless hours with the kitchen crew that fed people at various church functions like weddings and Bible School. She also enjoyed working in the nursery with the children of the church. Erma was also a member of several other organizations in the area including: Jumping Branch Senior Center, Main Street Hinton, the Family Resource Network, and Friends of the Library. In her later years, she and her granddaughter, Sara Tickle, wrote and published a book. Her book, Timeless Treasures: Tales of Rolling Meadows Farm, was one of her proudest achievements. Erma will be remembered as someone that was as strong as she was giving and gave to her family and community as much as she could. She was the last surviving member of her immediate family.

In addition to her husband and her parents, she was preceded in death by her step-father, H.B. Meadows; sons-in-law Steve Tickle and Rick Newsome; four brothers: Clyde, Elder Millard, Lawrence, and Homer Crotty; two sisters: Lucille Hill and Blanche Nicholson.

Those left to cherish her memory include her two daughters, Linda Tickle of Charleston and Mary Newsome of Jumping Branch; five grandchildren: Amy and Sara Tickle of Charleston, Richard Newsome of Jumping Branch, Olivia Rose and husband Jamie of Pikeville, KY, Rebecca Newsome and boyfriend Derek Dooley of Roanoke, VA; five great-grandchildren: Eli, Dawson, and Easton Rose, and Brooks and Karsyn Dooley. She is also survived by many nieces and nephews and special friends: Wilma Lilly O’Brian and Bill, Maura, Anne, and Alena Lindberg and Kaye Shepherd.

Erma’s family would like to say thank you to her hospice team and her wonderful caretakers: Carol Bishop, Tammy Adkins, Denise Massey, and Kathy Lilly. Thank you to Nedra Allen Holland who has been Erma’s caretaker, and a close companion for the past five years.

Funeral services will be 1:00 P.M. Friday, June 13, 2025 at the Ronald Meadows Funeral Parlors Chapel with Pastors Butch Honaker and Bill Fox officiating. Burial will follow in the Lilly Crews Cemetery at Nimitz. Visitation will be from noon until time of services at the funeral parlors. Family and friends will serve as pallbearers.

The family asks that donations of sympathy in lieu of flowers be made to Summers County Walk For Her Lifetime.