| Sources |
- [S84] E-Mail, Robbie Norman [storminorman85@hotmail.com], 5 Aug 2011.
- [S142] Newspaper Article, The Huntsville Times (AL), 4 Dec 2006.
May 6, 1917 - Dec. 2, 2006
Clifton Ray Cody , 89, of New Hope died Saturday at the decedent's residence in New Hope.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Sally Cora Cody , and one son, Herbert Junior Cody .
He is survived by six daughters, Ruby Keel and husband, James, Jane Norman and husband, Allen, Joyce Slayton and husband, Donald, JoAnn Terry and husband, Wayne, Martha Pruitt and husband, Jerry, and Betty Lanier; four sons, Ray Cody and wife, Judy, Ervin Cody and wife, Debroah, Marshall Cody and Roger Cody and wife, Carol; three sisters, Louise Streetman, Hazel Morgan and Dovie Lang; one brother, Herbert Cody ; 30 grandchildren, 49 great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at the New Hope Funeral Home Chapel at 1 p.m. Tuesday with Bro. Harold St. Clair and Bro. Shelby Hill officiating. Interment will follow at Walker Cemetery
- [S142] Newspaper Article, The Huntsville Times (AL), 10 Dec 2006.
Clifton Cody showed children 'the right way'
Life Stories - Son recalls dad's work ethic, faith and love of family
Clifton Cody never graduated from high school, but he knew how to do things and he knew how to not just make a living but make a life. He made sure his children learned, too.
"People would look at Dad as a teacher," said Cody 's eldest son, Ray Cody , 62, of New Hope. "He could do just about anything. ... I was amazed. People around him were amazed at what he could do."
He was an artist with wood, his son said, and did everything from whittling toys to making cribs, baby furniture and fine cabinetry. Cody also sold and worked with scrap metal.
"He was still fooling with scrap iron just about a month before he took to bed," his son said.
Cody was 89 when he died of cancer Dec. 2 at the home he built 35 years ago in New Hope.
He was born into a family of farmers in Georgia but went to grade schools in Alabama. He sharecropped until he made enough money to buy his first tractor - an International Harvester Farmall H, his son said.
Many years later, Cody carved scaled-down replicas of the parts of that Farmall. They fit together so well, like a moving, table-top wooden sculpture, that International Harvester wanted to buy it. Ray Cody said when his dad declined to sell it, the company had a special set of decals sized for it and sent them to adorn the wooden Farmall.
"He was an engineer," his son said. He may not have had formal training, but he could put an idea on paper and then build it.
Cody met the love of his life, Sallie Cora Duncan , when they were both working in a cotton field. They would have 12 children.
"When I asked her to marry me, I told her I didn't have a penny," Cody remembered for a Times story last February, after Cora died. "She said, 'Don't feel too bad because I don't, either.' I loved that woman. We had very, very little trouble."
Their 68-year marriage was a lesson in true partnership for the kids, Ray Cody said. And they were examples in other ways.
"There wasn't a day wasted by my dad," he said. "He believed in working every day."
But Cody also believed in balancing hard work with good times.
"We had fun," his son said. There was lots of family and many family gatherings, including dinners every Sunday with aunts and uncles and grandparents. "We would look forward to Sunday," he said.
Of course, Sunday was special for other reasons.
"Dad loved the Lord, and he loved to go to gospel singings," his son said. In recent years he especially followed an area group, The Boys of Alabama. Lead singer Rick Durham even came to visit and pray with Cody when he became ill.
That was the kind of impression Cody made on people, his son said. It came from the way he lived.
"If you do something, do it right." That was his dad's attitude, Ray Cody said. "And he taught us the right way."
|
Search | Advanced Search
1917 - 2006 (89 years)
[2, 3]