header 1
header 2
header 3

In Memory Of Our Poets

Tressie James (Ott) (1919-2006) - Class Of 1936

Tressie Irene James Ott


1919 - 2006

Tressie Irene James Ott died January 27, 2006, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was born May 26, 1919, in Montgomery, Alabama, and graduated from Sidney Lanier High School. Tressie married Montgomery native William Bancroft Ott, Jr. in 1940.

In 1947 the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Bill worked for the Coca-Cola Company. Tressie was a perennial room mother for both her son Jimmy and her daughter Linda. Tressie and Bill were long-time youth counselors at Decatur First Methodist Church. While her children were in high school and college, Tressie worked as a dental assistant for the DeKalb County Health Department.

After they both retired, Bill and Tressie moved to Cleveland in the north Georgia Mountains, where they were active members of Mossy Creek United Methodist Church. In 1992 they returned to Montgomery to be with friends and family with whom they grew up, and joined the Dalraida United Methodist Church. After Bill died in 2000, Tressie moved to Raleigh to be close to both her children. Tressie, a life long Methodist, became an associate member of Highland United Methodist Church, where her daughter and son-in-law were members.

Tressie is survived by:
Her sister
Martha Ellen James Hopkins of Decatur, Georgia
Her son James William Ott and his wife Sally of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Her daughter Linda Elizabeth Ott Edwards and her husband John of Raleigh, North Carolina
Her granddaughter Kathryn Ott Kieser and her husband Dwight of Atlanta
Her granddaughter Parie Lynn Hines and her husband Agen Schmitz of Seattle
Her grandson William Bancroft Ott III and his fiancée Shelby Miller of Charlotte, North Carolina
Her great granddaughter Lauren Elizabeth Kieser of Atlanta.

Funeral arrangements were handles by Southern Memorial and the service was held at Dalraida United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, on Saturday, January 28, 2006 at 2pm. The family received friends 1 hour prior to the service. Burial followed in Greenwood Cemetery. Southern Memorial Directed.