Mathilde Jackson Dougan, a Milan, Tennessee, native, passed peacefully on May 28, 2020, at age 89.
Mathilde was known by all for her adventurous spirit. In her youth, she spent a year as an exchange student in Havana, Cuba, where she made lifelong friends. She also learned to fly a Piper Cub airplane. She is a Milan High School graduate, class of 1948, and an alumna of Memphis State College (now University of Memphis).
She and her family resided in Warner Robins, Georgia, for more than fifty years. During that time, Mathilde touched the lives of many children as a Spanish teacher at Warner Robins Junior High School and volunteered as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate in court cases for the Division of Family & Children Services. She was a longtime member of the American Association of University Women, in which she focused efforts on literacy and education, serving for a year as president of the Warner Robins branch.
Mathilde loved her family and was very proud of her heritage. In her later years, her passion for genealogy led to her authoring two books: Pharaoh’s Children and Firstborn Son of Milan, Tennessee. The former is a look into her mother’s family history, including ancestor Pharaoh Burn, born in 1777. The latter explores the history of her father’s family, including James Brinkley Jackson, believed to be the first white male child born in her hometown of Milan.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Ray Barnette Jackson and Clara Mae Burns Jackson; twin sisters, Marian Yvonne Jackson Shotts and Rachel Wanza Jackson; and her husband of sixty years, Robert Evans Dougan. She is survived by her son, Robert Evans (Sheila) Dougan, Jr., of Lookout Mountain, Georgia; two granddaughters, Elizabeth Rená (Michael) London of Alpharetta, Georgia, and Jessica Katrina (Andrew) Flaugher of San Diego, California; and seven great-grandchildren, Greyson, Jack, Clara, and Evie London and Alexus, Hannah, and Avery Flaugher.
Although she spent most of her life in Georgia, she was a Tennessean at heart and always considered Milan her home. She will be laid to rest there at Oak Grove Baptist Church cemetery, alongside her late husband and parents.
Expressions of sympathy may be shared at ryanfuneralhome.net.
Arrangements are by Ryan Funeral Home & Crematory, Trenton, GA.
