Deborah K. "Debbie" Rooker

July 5, 1957 - September 20, 2011

Mrs. Deborah K. “Debbie” Rooker, age 54, loving wife of Joseph Martin Rooker, beloved mother of daughter Millicent Rooker, and a resident of Pleasant Gate Lane in Columbia, TN went home to heaven after a difficult illness on Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at Maury Regional Medical Center with her family by her side.

Funeral services for Mrs. Rooker will be conducted on Friday, September 23, 2011 at 10:00 AM at Maury Hills Church with Russ Adcox and David Adcox officiating. Interment will follow at 2:00 PM in the Roselawn Memorial Gardens in Murfreesboro, TN. The family will visit with friends at Maury Hills Church on Thursday, September 22, 2011 from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM and then again on Friday from 9:00 AM until the service hour. Heritage Funeral Home is assisting the family and in charge of arrangements.

Debbie is a native of Middletown, Ohio, and the middle child of the late Wallace Don Sparks and the late Carolyn (Rose) Sparks Jones. She was raised in Sand Gap, KY from 14 months old & grew up helping her parents run their “Frosty-ette” Drive-In and also working at the Westinghouse plant at night. She and her 2 siblings would hang out in the back resting on a small bed while the jukebox endlessly played songs like “Ring Of Fire” and “Please Don’t Go On Wolverton Mountain.” She overcame childhood tragedies such as her father’s passing when she was 6 years old, and a kidney disease that was called the Brights disease. In spite of it all; she was a singer, cheerleader, and voted the Snow Queen at age 15. Soon after meeting Joseph Rooker at their job at State Farm Ins, they fell in love and were married in Jamaica on October 25, 1992. She and Joseph were assigned to an agency in Centerville and Hohenwald and have traveled to Spain, The Caribbean Islands, and Austria. She loved decorating, celebrating life, and being a part of her daughter’s events, for whom she lived. Her outward beauty was far surpassed by her inward beauty. She was not only a bright and shining star in many lives while here on earth, but the heavens are brighter because there is a new angel there now. She was an active member of the Maury Hills Church and will be honored and missed deeply.

In addition to her husband Joseph, and her daughter Millicent; she has left behind to cherish her memory, one brother, Michael Don Sparks of Corbin, KY; and one sister, Donna Jewell Bailey of Richmond, KY. She also left behind several nieces and nephews: Jeffery (Tera) Sparks, Mallory (Andrew) Davis, Darrel Wayne Muncy, and Marc Cody Muncy.

Pallbearers will be Randy Terry, James Smith, Tom Cribbs, Tom Mann, Rick Jones, Danny Goodpasture, Martin Chaney, Joe Steinmetz and Steve Scott.

Memorials may be made to: The Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation, 3282 Northside Parkway NW Suite 100, Atlanta, GA 30327, Maury Hills Church Building Fund, 101 Unity Lane, Columbia, TN 38401, or The Light Em’ Up Fund at Zion Christian Academy, 6901 Old Zion Road, Columbia, TN 38401.

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