Carolyn Brickey

Carolyn Geraldine Brickey, age 85, of Church Hill, passed away on Thursday, February 5, 2026 at her home with her loved ones by her side. Born to Clarence and Monnie Pearl Ferguson on December 1, 1940, Carolyn was the last of seven siblings.

Goodbye Momma….

Most people have a special someone in life they lose that meant the world to them. Each family has someone who seems to be a pillar in the family everyone turns to or held great value to them. This is common in most families across this country. But very few people in this world seem to be the person for who has a positive effect on multiple lives and multiple families throughout their time here on earth. “Momma” was such a person. We have no idea how many people she helped raise or how many kids came up under her. She was the perfect example of love and “home” even to those that weren’t family. Over the years she would take people in her own home and keep them as if they were her own. She was the peacemaker for any issue. She wouldn’t dare have family fighting. She hid problems to avoid stress to others. She held the secrets of so many to keep them and others from hurt. She was the lady who would save up and sneak money to those who wanted, or she thought was in need. No one missed a meal…especially on Sundays. She listened as each kid she had vented about the other. She always had to make it better for them somehow. The perfect example of selflessness. On Sundays, the whole family (plus half the church sometimes it seemed), would meet at the house for Sunday lunch (no restaurant today can hold a candle to her fried chicken). She was a carpenter/preacher’s wife who was always poor her whole life but still always seemed to have enough money for everyone else. As she got older, all the people and gatherings started getting fewer and smaller. As her candle grew dim in later years, so it seemed everyone else’s did as well. It became evident she was the glue that helped so many things and people together.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Clarence and Monnie Pearl Sherfey Ferguson; husband of 65 years, Paul Brickey; sisters, Marie Brickey and Janie Taylor; brothers, Fred, Paul, Kenneth and Tanker Ferguson; and granddaughter, Stacey Laster.

She is lovingly remembered by her children, Connie Ward (Donnie), Rick Brickey, Greg Brickey (Nina), Tim Brickey (Betty), Scott Brickey (Felicia) and Monica Russell (Houston): grandchildren, Christy Robinson, Donnie Paul Ward, Ashley Logan, Justin Brickey, Anna Light, Dakota, Heather, Austin Joshua and Kaine Russell, Anna Fegyak and Michaela Boggs; twenty seven great-grandchildren; fourteen great-great-grandchildren; and many who she claimed as her own. Her heart was as full as her hands and she never complained.

The family will receive friends from 4pm – 6pm on Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at Hamlett Dobson Funeral Home, Kingsport. A service will follow at 6pm with Pastor Luther Russell and Pastor Greg Street officiating.

Graveside services will be conducted at 1pm on Thursday, February 12, 2026 at Church Hill Memory Gardens.