Filmore I. Meredith

Filmore E. Meredith was born on September 3, 1935 in Wichita Falls, Texas. He grew up in Olney, Texas, a small town southwest of Wichita Falls. His father was a doctor and also operated three farms on which Filmore worked during the summers of his high school years. He was actually a real cowboy!

Fil graduated from Baylor University in 1958. At Baylor, he met his future wife on a Sunday night blind date. He had to find her in the middle of a crowded freshman dorm drawing room…Successful at last! Lynn Avery Meredith was his date. Four years later she became his wife. They celebrated their fifty-eighth wedding anniversary on August 25, 2018.

Fil’s graduate school at the University of Texas was interrupted when President Kennedy activated the Texas Army Reserves in 1961 when the Berlin Wall was erected.

Filmore began his work as a Research Chemist for the USDA in 1963. He first worked at a field station in Weslaco, Texas improving the quality of winter vegetables and citrus grown there in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

In 1971, Filmore and Lynn and their two children moved to Athens. He worked at the Richard Russell Research Lab until his retirement in 2002. While there, his work covered many areas. He found a mold on corn that in heavy amounts was a cause of cancer. Because of the high rate of stomach cancer in Guatemala, The World Health Organization sent him to Guatemala to teach producers of tortillas how to choose a better grade of corn for their use. He also got agricultural services to teach the local farmers to choose better corn when making their own corn foods.  Later, he was instrumental in getting corn chips producers in our country to use a better grade of corn. So eat corn chips!

He is survived by his wife of fifty-eight years, Lynn Avery Meredith; his daughter, Mary Kathryn Warnock and son-in-law, Brian Carlson; son, Kelly F. Meredith; five grandchildren, Ash Warnock, Charis Warnock, McKae Warnock, Robert Meredith and Madison Meredith. Fil was preceded in death by a brother, James Meredith, but is survived by a sister-in-law, Gigi Meredith of Oak Ridge, TN; brother, John (Cherrye) Meredith of Olney, TX; sister, Michelle (Leslie) Stone of Woodson, TX; brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Joel Avery of Chattanooga, TN and Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence Avery of Chapel Hill, NC.

Funeral services will be Wednesday, October 10, 2018 at 11:00 AM at the chapel of Lord and Stephens, EAST. Interment will be at the Georgia National Cemetery, Canton, GA at a later date.

The family will receive friends at the residence.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Hope Meredith Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Jefferson High School, 575 Washington Street, Jefferson, GA 30549.

Lord and Stephens, EAST, is in charge of arrangements. www.lordandstephens.com