Mary Ellen "Ma" Rogers, the oldest Clermont City Council member until she was defeated in a re-election bid four years ago, has died.
Rogers, who was 90, died Friday following an extended illness.
According to her obituary, "she took pride in being the oldest council member for her beloved town of Clermont and for keeping the sale of alcohol out of the city limits as long as she lived." Rogers was 86 when he lost her final city council race in 2013.
Rogers was also active in her church and for more than two decades helped prepare Thanksgiving Dinner for Good News at Noon, a Gainesville homeless shelter. But, in 2014, she hung up her oven mitts.
Rogers, however, was not able to remove herself totally from the annual feast, showing up the following year and asking to be allowed in the kitchen to “supervise.”
A celebration of her life will be held at 2:00 Tuesday at Christian Hill Baptist Church in Clermont.
(A full obituary can be found on the AccessWDUN Obituaries Page.)
(Former AccessWDUN reporter Russell Brown contributed to this story.)
