Agatha Marie Counts Kent, long time educator and musician, and loved by countless family and friends, passed away on March 19 at Ogeechee Area Hospice in Statesboro, Georgia, after a long illness. She was born on July 28, 1938, in a tenant house on the Counts family farm in the Buck Creek Community of Screven County. Agatha was the first of the five children of G.D. Counts, Jr., and Mary Katharine Sneed Counts. She graduated in 1956 from Screven County High School and graduated from Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina in 1960, where she majored in mathematics and music and was an integral part of campus activities and many musical productions. She later earned Master’s and Specialist degrees from Georgia Southern University.
A devoted and beloved educator who began her teaching career in 1960 in Pendleton, S.C., she also taught in Kingston, Tennessee, and was a teacher in Screven County schools. For years, she taught mathematics at Screven County High School and then began her long tenure and service as Curriculum Director for the Screven County School System. After retirement in 1998 from the Screven County Schools, she continued as a mathematics curriculum and training consultant for Saxon Publishers which provided her the opportunity to work with and serve educational leaders and teachers across the entire United States.
Agatha’s love of music and her talents were known by many as her unselfish and tireless efforts helped to build and lead strong music programs and to support and inspire other musicians of her church and community. She served as organist and pianist at the Sylvania First United Methodist Church, participating in choir productions, community wide musical events, weddings, funerals, and anything musical throughout the area and over the course of many years. Born with great energy and enthusiasm for adventure, she loved traveling all over the United States and around the world, befriending all she met.
Agatha was preceded in death by her parents, G.D. Counts, Jr., and Mary Katharine Sneed Counts. She is survived by her three children, Benjie Kent, Brad (Cindi) Kent, and Kelley Kent Bazemore (Troy Anderson), by her grandchildren, Kendall (Zak) Clark, Tanner (Amber) Kent, Joshua Fowler (Khristina Barbee), Weston Bazemore, Allie Brooke Bazemore, and by one great grandson, Gunner Fowler. Agatha is also survived by her four brothers and sisters, Becky Counts Deal (Vern Wells), Trudy Counts, John Mark (Brenda) Counts, and Douglas Counts (Debbie Brown). In addition, she is survived by many nephews and nieces and by many other family members who loved her and cherished her steadfast love and support for them, and by so many friends who also loved her.
A tribute to Agatha and a memorial celebration of her life will be planned and announced by the family at a later date. Memorial gifts may be made at any time to Ogeechee Area Hospice or to a charity of choice.