Jean Ann Cunningham

Jean Ann Cunningham, 92, passed away peacefully at her home surrounded by her family on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024.

A memorial service will be held in her honor at 3:00 PM on Saturday, April 13, 2024 at Emanuel Baptist Church located at 1401 Washington Street, West Charleston, West Virginia, 25387. The family will receive friends At 2:0 PM before the service. The church will be opened for receiving flowers at 11:00 AM.

Jean was born on November 25, 1931, to the late Roy Mason and Gertrude Pettus Denny in Dunbar, Kanawha County,  West Virgina. She passed away in Madison, Rockingham County, North Carolina.

Along with her parents, she is preceded in death by her husband of 40 years, Rev. James Cunningham, and siblings, Hugh Denny, Ella Crotty, William Denny, and Martha Myers.

Jean is survived by her children, Ramona Cunningham O’Bryant, Lee Ann Cunningham Fogwell (Lynn), Judy Cunningham Jeffrey (Terry), Joy Cunningham Groves (Michael); grandchildren, Graham Fogwell (Mariela), Michelle Fogwell (David), Lindsay Oakley, Matthew Groves (Sarah), Dillon Jeffrey (Zoe), James O’Bryant (Alex), Aaron Groves (Anna); great grandchildren, Rafael, Breton, and Mary Frances; and brother-in-law, George Cunningham, along with a large and loving group of extended family and friends. The family wants to thank Peggy McCollum and Crystal Vazquez, who so lovingly worked alongside us to care for mom in her last weeks, and Ancora Compassionate Care, which provided amazing hospice care to mom and us as she neared the end of her life.

Jean was a woman of many talents and passions. Following her graduation from South Charleston High School, Jean enrolled at Alderson-Broaddus College where she graduated in 1953 with a major in Social Studies and minors in German, English and Music, and later was awarded an Honorary Doctorate. After graduation, she attended Yale Divinity School for a year then went to Mexico for several months with the American Friends Service Committee, participating in mission projects in several areas of the country. Her next stop was the Weirton, West Virginia Christian Center, teaching kindergarten and serving as youth director.  

On a weekend visit home to see her parents, Jean ran into an old friend from Baptist Youth programs and Alderson-Broaddus, Jim Cunningham. And the rest was history. Jim and Jean married and served together in churches in Cowen, South Charleston, and Milton, West Virginia, before they began to serve at the West Virginia Baptist Conference Center in Ripley, West Virginia and the Baptist Youth Camp in Cowen. Throughout this time, Jean taught voice and piano lessons, taught Sunday School, served in various music ministry roles, was a substitute teacher (where many students called her “mom” in the hallways), and in various social work positions, including in a nursing home and as acting CEO of Action Youth Care, working with troubled youth and their families in 13 offices across West Virginia. She later served for several years as Minister of Administration at Emmanual Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia, where she was also active with the Bob Burdette Center’s after school program.

In the 1970s, Jean was active on the National Board of American Baptist Women and continued to serve for many years. Later, she served on the Board of the American Baptist Churches, USA. In 1995, Jean served as president of the West Virginia Baptist Convention. She received the Alderson-Broaddus Distinguished Alumni Award and served on the Alderson-Broaddus Board of Trustees for many years. The Wilcox Chapel Bell Tower and the adjoining plaza at Alderson-Broaddus are named in her honor.

Jean loved to travel. She traveled around Mexico during her mission work there. The family vacationed in Canada several times and Jean traveled extensively through the United States with her American Baptist Churches work. And when Lee Ann and Lynn worked abroad, Jean and Jim visited them in Germany, and Jean later visited them in Belgium and China. She also traveled to Europe to see the Passion Play. Jean took many cruises, including several with her Sweet Adeline group and, her favorite, an island-hopping cruise in Greece. Jean and her best friend Ann took many road trips, to North Carolina, Virginia, and Michigan, and they rarely missed a home WVU football game.

Jean's love of music was a driving force in her life. She sang in choirs and was a soloist starting at a young age and found music opportunities wherever she went. Music was a big part of Jean's family, from the lullabies she sang to her girls, to teaching piano - she was even brave enough to teach (or at least try to teach) her girls, to camp songs, to the songs she sang in the car on vacation, Jean made life more fun and meaningful with music. And music was so important to her to the end. She sang hymns, most often Amazing Grace, with her caretakers and girls as long as she could, and then continued to enjoy and be comforted by her family singing at her bedside or listening to Kenny G, hymns, or her lifelong favorite Barbra Streisand.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in her honor to the PKD Foundation, PO Box 871847, Kansas City, MO  64187 (raising money for polycystic kidney disease research). More information is available at pkdcure.org.