Imogene Balcom's Obituary
Imogene Balcom, a resident of Pinellas Park, FL, since the late 1950s, passed away Dec. 19, 2022, at Seasons Memory Care of Largo, with care also provided by Suncoast Hospice. She was 90.
She was born Gertrude Imogene, on Oct. 23, 1932, in Campbell County, TN, to George and Mossie Johnson, the second of four children.
Mrs. Balcom grew up a coal miner’s daughter mostly in the Jellico area, where many family members lived. She especially enjoyed staying with her maternal grandmother who had a telephone. She was very close to her older sister, Nancy, and people rarely saw one sister without the other.
Mrs. Balcom graduated from Jellico High School and then attended Cumberland College in Williamsburg, KY, for a year. She wanted to help pay for college so she went to work in the Cincinnati area, where she met her husband,
Frederick Arthur Balcom Jr. He worked there as an Air Force recruiter. They were married Dec. 1, 1951, in Lawrenceburg, IN, and lived in different areas of the country during his service.
They moved to Pinellas Park in the late 1950s to be near his parents. Mrs. Balcom worked for Johnson Drug and Webb's City in St. Petersburg doing clerical work until she gave birth in 1960. Later in life, she retired after 12 years with
the State of Florida in the secretarial field.
Mrs. Balcom was preceded in death by her husband in 2019, her parents, siblings Nancy Smalley and Robert Johnson, and son Scott Balcom. She is survived by her younger brother Harold (Brenda) Johnson of Bristol, VA; sister-in-law Judy Johnson of Jellico, Kentucky; daughter Lesa Regan of Pinellas Park; daughter-in-law Theresa Santo-Balcom of Polk City, FL; and five grandchildren, several great grand-children and many nieces and nephews.
Lesa said her mother was a devoted wife and mother who enjoyed reading, doing word puzzles and walking, and was a private loyal person to her friends and family. “A tough Appalachian lady” to the end, Lesa said she retained her sense of humor even as her health declined the last couple of years.
Visitation with the family will be 11 a.m.-12 p.m., followed by a funeral service at 12 p.m., Tuesday,
December 27, 2022 in the chapel of Memorial Park Funeral Home, 5750 49th Street N, St. Petersburg FL 33709. Pastor Branson Rogers will officiate along with Pastor Tim Davis. Immediately after the service, friends and family may proceed to the Garden of Honor in Memorial Park Cemetery where she will be laid to rest next to her late husband.
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