Rebecca Harrison's Obituary
Funeral Services for Mrs. Rebecca Ann Harrison, 74 of Talladega, will be Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 3 pm at Talladega Funeral Home with Rev. Truman Norred officiating. The family will begin receiving friends at 1:30 pm. Burial will follow the service at Pine Hill Memorial Park.
Rebecca Ann Harrison passed away peacefully at home February 16, 2013, after a five-year battle with Alzheimer's disease. Rebecca was born May 17, 1938, the fifth child of M.D. McKinney and Elsie Smith McKinney in Munford, Alabama. She was a member of First Baptist Church, Trussville, Alabama. Both of her parents preceded her in death as well as two brothers, Joe Fletcher McKinney, William Earl McKinney, one sister, Betty Lou Craven, and one granddaughter, Lindsay M. McClendon. She is survived by her husband of 54 years, Ernest L. Harrison, Jr., three sons, Robert E. Harrison and wife Tracie, Randall W. Harrison and wife Brenda, George D. Harrison and wife Sheila, seven grandchildren, ten great grandchildren; four sisters, Margie Strickland, Dorothy Etheredge and husband Gwinn, Brenda Ward and husband Jimmy, Yvonne Bell and husband Merrell; two brothers, Reese S. McKinney and Dwight McKinney and wife Carol, and many nieces and nephews.
She graduated from Talladega High School in 1957. Rebecca grew up during hard times, the middle child of a family with ten children. She learned to care for the younger children and cook and clean at an early age. To help support themselves, the family took in washing and ironing from the community, and she and other siblings grew very proficient in these tasks as well as babysitting neighborhood children. Her first employment in a formal job was with V.J. Elmore's 5 & 10 Cent Store on the square in Talladega, where she worked for two and one-half years. On June 8, 1958, she married Ernest L. Harrison, Jr., her high school sweetheart from the time of her sophomore year. They left Talladega for Roswell, New Mexico, in May, 1960, where Ernest began duty in the U.S. Air Force.
The Air Force duty would eventually extend more than twenty-four years and place them in many different locations of the United States. Rebecca served just as diligently and honorably in these years, picking up her household and moving to new locations ten times, making new friends at new locations, finding schools and playmates for her children. She had to keep her family together and meet all their needs by herself for long periods as her husband served in remote locations. All through these years in the military service, she joined other military wives in activities to support and assist military families whose military member was away from the family for duty. She was active in the churches her family attended and taught children's Sunday school in several locations.
After their retirement from the service, the couple returned to their home state of Alabama to look after aging parents and grandchildren. Rebecca stepped in as caretaker and sustainer for her husband's mother in her terminal illness and later for her own father. Her mother's decline was long, and she spent many days and nights away from her own home to see to the needs of her mother. She did this again as an older sister lost her battle with terminal illness. For all her married life, she was the heart of her family, always with a smile and a cheerful laugh. She loved life and her family, including a large extended family.
She was a good Christian woman, a wonderful wife and companion to her husband, a superb mother to her children, and a lovingly indulgent grandmother and great grandmother.
Talladega Funeral Home will direct the services.
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