Margaret Byrom

MARGARET BYROM Mrs. Margaret Murphy Slayden Byrom, 82, Columbia businesswoman and resident of Graymere Manor Road, died Saturday, November 8, 2003, at Lawnwood Memorial Hospital in Fort Pierce, Florida. Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Thursday at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home with Rev. Fred Blankenship and Rev. Jim Hughes officiating. Burial will be in Rose Hill Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Wednesday from 4 - 8 p.m. at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to Shriner's Children's Hospital, P.O. Box 890, Columbia, Tennessee 38402. Notes of sympathy may be sent to the family at www.oakesandnichols.com. The Maury County native was the daughter of the late Andrew Claude Murphy and Bessie Frank Erwin Murphy. She was first married to Leon Slayden who preceded her in death in 1966. She later married John Oliver Byrom who survives her. She was a 1941 graduate of Central High School. Mrs. Byrom was owner and operator of Western Auto and Old Town Furniture for a total of forty-two years. She was a member of Graymere Country Club and Ladies Golf Association. She was a member of First United Methodist Church. Mrs. Byrom had wintered in Fort Pierce, Florida for the past sixteen years. Survivors in addition to her husband include one daughter, Melanie Slayden VanDenbos of Tahlequah, Oklahoma; one step-daughter, Jean Marie Byrom Hutton of Pulaski; two grandchildren, Lt. Jay Slayden VanDenbos of Ft. Sill, Lawton, Oklahoma, Julie Anna VanDenbos of Tahlequah, Oklahoma; two nephews, Lt. Col. Richard Murphy, retired, and Andrew Murphy both of Gallatin. She was preceded in death by a son, John Wilson Slayden in 1964 and a brother, Claude E. Murphy. Pallbearers will be Hugh Bradley Erwin, Jerry Wayne Erwin, Richard Murphy, Andrew Murphy, Tim Aston, Tony Sowell, Zeke Maddux and Charles Aston. Honorary pallbearers will be Will Reed, Wimpy Jones, Raymond Hamilton, Lucille Hamilton, Starling Davis, Louise Rayburn, Marie Hickman, Norma Whiteside, Bev Pigg, Evelyn Truelove, Billie Lucas, Melba Vest, Frank Williams, Betsy Williams, Mary Webb, Becky Parks, Norma Thomas, Mae Duncan, Aylene Buchanan, Ralph Maddux, Ruskin Vest, Loretta Ware and Kitty Dealy Brown.