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<h2><font size="+1">Obituary</font>: <font size="+1">Bessie June
Certain</font></h2>
<h2><font size="-1"><span>June 29, 1931</span> - <span> September
30, 2021</span></font></h2>
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<p><font size="+1">Bessie June Certain, 90, of 4005 Pine Ave.,
Huntsville, died Thursday, Sept. 30, at her home. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">She is survived by her daughters, Geni Certain
and Teri Certain Strickland; sons-in-law, Larry Wood, Scott
Strickland, and Allen Paseur; daughter-in-law, Avis Marsh
Certain; grandchildren, Andrea Paseur, Dustin Paseur and his
wife Danielle, Johanna Wood, Nia Hunter Witt and her husband
Lee, and Ian Hunter; and great-grandsons, Dalton Paseur, Dillon
Paseur, Warren Paseur and John Allen Paseur. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">She was preceded in death by her first husband,
Philip Reeves Certain; son, Philip Anthony Certain; daughters,
Andrea Lynn Certain and Deborah Rosemary Certain Paseur;
grandsons, James Paul Philip Certain and John Marsh Certain; and
by her second husband, Dewey C. Moss. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">Mrs. Certain was a staunch advocate of equal
rights for women and took pride in her role in breaking through
glass ceilings. She rose through the civilian employee ranks at
Redstone Arsenal from a GS-3 clerk typist to become the first
female physical security specialist on post and then the U.S.
Army’s first female computer security specialist. She retired in
1997 as a GS-13. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">Born in a Huntsville cotton mill village during
the depths of the Great Depression, she knew poverty as a child
and developed a resourcefulness that endured throughout her life
and which she taught to all her children. She loved learning and
considered a day successful if it taught her one new thing.
After she retired from Civil Service, she missed the
intellectual challenge as well as the professional interactions
of her job, but she always had a project to occupy her mind and
her hands. These included working as a secretary in her
grandson’s legal office and a stint as a Visiting Angel, in
which she cared for people who needed aid in their homes. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">As a widow in her 60s, she discovered a love of
line dancing and a talent for wire wrapping gemstones, thanks to
the influence of her second husband, Huntsville rockhound Dewey
Moss. Over the next 20 years, she developed her artistic
expression in jewelry design and taught wire wrapping to a
number of students. Anyone who admired a piece of her jewelry
usually received it as a gift on the spot. In her last years,
she sewed, she read, she created elaborate flower arrangements,
and she played word games to keep her mind sharp. Throughout her
adult life, she welcomed visitors to her home, and she made sure
no one ever left hungry. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">She will be interred Sunday next to her beloved
Philip and Andrea Lynn in a private ceremony at Maple Hill
Cemetery. Although she loved flowers, her greatest calling was
helping people in need. Thus, in lieu of flowers, Mrs. Certain’s
family invites gifts in her memory to the food pantry at
Grateful Life Community Church in Huntsville, New Futures
homeless shelter in Huntsville, Rose of Sharon soup kitchen in
Huntsville, Christmas Charities Year Round in Huntsville, or to
your local homeless shelter.</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">==============================</font></p>
<p><br>
<font size="+1"><font size="+1">Bessie June Certain worked at the
HD in 1960, was in the HD phonebook that year, and was in a
carpool with Faye Jones.<br>
</font></font></p>
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