- KNOXVILLE — Deborah Ann Greathouse went home peacefully with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Sunday, January 23, 2022 after a courageous battle with terminal inflammatory breast cancer. She was lovingly surrounded by her daughter Jennifer and the incredible University of Tennessee Hospice Care team who diligently and tirelessly cared for her through the duration of the last months of her illness.
Deborah was born October 7, 1954, and raised as a youngster in Elizabethton, Tenn., and later resided in Atlanta, Ga., San Francisco, Calif., and in Hawaii for much of her adult life. Deborah lived a full and inspirational life. She was a gift to those in need and a compassionate woman who gave tirelessly to others during her own, private lifelong struggle with Crohn’s disease. Deborah went on to earn her B.A. from San Francisco State University and began a career spanning decades. The highlights of her career include working and traveling for McGraw Hill Publishing Company as an executive until her retirement. Her career also included working for a west coast extension of NASA at the Geosat Corporation in San Francisco and she later became a community outreach executive at the ALS Lou Gehrig’s Foundation of San Francisco. She shared her passion tirelessly in caring for and assisting ALS patients and their families. She published caregiving guides and resource manuals for families of ALS and was a strong advocate for community outreach on behalf of the foundation.
Deborah shared her passion for learning and education in her retired years by working as a substitute teacher for her native Tennessee communities where she inspired students with examples of her art and her worldly European and West Coast travels. Deborah was an avid artist and a photographer. Her paintings have been donated and displayed to community centers, churches, and to the many local communities in which she lived. As a photographer, she enjoyed the processing of original dark room film photography and taking pictures of the many landscapes and people she encountered in her travels. Most of all, Deborah was so proud of her loving granddaughter Lauren.
Deborah is survived by her loving daughter Jennifer Blatchley, her granddaughter Lauren Blatchley, her close cousins, Jill DelValle and Jack Frost Jr., and by many cousins, relatives, and friends. Deborah’s family were direct descendants of John Oliver, founder of Cade’s Cove Tennessee.
She was preceded in death by her most loving grandparents, Robert and Alice Markland, and by Sophia and William Clay Hardin Sr., along with her parents, William Clay Hardin Jr. and Loretta Jean Davis of Elizabethton, Tenn. She is also recently preceded in death by her aunt, Joan Hardin Sawyer of Atlanta, Ga.
Deborah would like to give a very special thanks to the UT Hospice Care team members including Dr. Cynthia Pearman, charge nurse Crystal Welborne, Nurse Practitioner Jordan Massey, nurse Amanda Mayes, nurse Patrick Moore, and care staff Jane Carter. They worked tirelessly to provide comfort and medical care and they went above and beyond the call of duty. Deborah’s daughter Jennifer would like to especially thank Dr. Cynthia Pearman, who gave the precious gift of time with her mother. Deborah also wants to thank Dr. DeVore and Dr. Shoemaker of the Tennessee Cancer Specialist Center. Special thanks to her dedicated local friends Vishal Sharma and wife Parul Kaushal and neighbor Fadia Alvie for all the love made in every dish of homemade soups with assistance in logistics of helping her maintain a peaceful home environment. Special thanks to Bob Gervasio for the lifelong love shown to her. Special thanks to Donna Hopwood and her staff at 24/7 caregivers for being there in the middle of the night. Thanks also goes to her church family, to her Stevens minister Millie, and to Father Christopher Hogan of Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Knoxville. Thanks to all who assisted tirelessly in her many daily battles and struggles with the effects of the cancer and Crohn’s. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Deborah’s name go to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation and to the American Cancer Society. Deborah will be so dearly missed by all who knew and loved her. Her words of grace, wisdom, and faith will live on for the surviving generations. “It’s not how you start out in this life, it’s all in how you finish and in the way in which you give the glory to God for all your many blessings.” Private services were held.
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1954 - 2022 (67 years)
