Margie Leona Fillyaw Sweat

NORMAN PARK, GA. - Margie Fillyaw Sweat, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, cook, seamstress, and traveler, died the evening of Tuesday, July 26, 2022.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM Saturday, July 30, 2022, at Cobb Funeral Chapel with the Reverend Jimmy Voyles and Pastor Jody Jordan officiating.  Mirriam Jordan will provide vocal accompaniment with “I Will Talk to the Father for You” and “Amazing Grace.”

The family will receive friends from 10-10:45 AM Saturday at Cobb Funeral Chapel. 

Pallbearers will be Andy Ballard, Jeremy Hall, Hunter Copeland, Asa Ballard, Jack Ballard, and James Ballard.

Margie was born to Arthur Fillyaw and Ethel Williams Fillyaw in Doerun, Georgia. She started her life in the midst of the Great Depression, taking her lunch of a cold biscuit to school in a lard bucket each day and sweeping her dirt yard in the early evenings of South Georgia. The struggles of those years created the strength and grit that would form her spirit that was obvious through her last hours.

After graduating from Doerun High School, Margie eventually began working for Riverside Manufacturing Company and was employed there for a total of 49 years. She finally retired at the age of 75 and was always extremely thankful she could work for that long. She loved her job and was proud of the work she accomplished and the fine ladies she supervised. Many of those women still smile when mentioning her.

An avid sports fan, she especially loved watching baseball. She watched her favorite team, the Atlanta Braves, every time they played. She knew all of the players and could talk about the team’s statistics with everyone whether they had the same affinity for baseball or not.

Margie’s family will remember her for many other reasons, of course. She was an excellent cook and taught them how to cook not by measurements but by how ingredients feel – their weight and shape in the hand. She had a wicked sense of wit that never left her, joking with her great-grandsons about the length of their hair just a week ago. She loved fishing with her sisters even though she wasn’t a good swimmer, enjoying many hours by the side of a pond. Margie also discovered a love of traveling after her retirement and continued to do so as long as her health allowed it. She and her lifelong friend Betty Shifflett traveled all over the United States and into Canada, but Margie’s favorite excursion was a cruise to Alaska. She was so grateful she was able to see plants, animals, people, and architecture that a little girl in Doerun never even imagined being able to see. 

A faithful woman, Margie was a member of First Baptist Church of Norman Park and has many friends from church.

Margie married her only husband, Hugh Davis Sweat (deceased), in 1955. They had three daughters – Debbie Hall, Janet Knight, and Marcy Copeland. She taught them to love, cook, work hard, and be thankful. She is survived by an extended family: her daughters, their husbands (Jerry Hall, Andy Knight, and Bill Copeland), her sister Thelma Hembree, her brother James Fillyaw, four grandchildren (Jennifer Ballard [husband Andy Ballard], Jeremy Hall [wife Evelyn Hall], Hunter Copeland [wife Lauren Copeland], and Anna Copeland), great-grandchildren (Asa, Jack, and James Ballard; Kelsey, Peyton, Jinsey, and Charley Hall, Tanner Kozlowski and Ella Copeland; and McKinley Hemingway). Margie was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and three sisters (Lorene Layfield, Betty Burnham, and Carolyn Carroll).

Memorial contributions may be made to the First Baptist Church of Norman Park/Youth Program, P O Box 107 Norman Park, Georgia 31771.