Nancy Bohannon

Nancy Chiarantano Bohannon, 81, a resident of Spring Hill FL, passed away on June 9, 2023. Nancy was born in Cincinnati, but moved to Knoxville TN at a young age, graduating from South High in 1960 where she was named Most Likely to Succeed. She graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1964, where she was an honors student, a member of Phi Mu, and a finalist for Homecoming Queen in 1963. After raising three daughters in Cookeville and Dickson, TN, Nancy moved to Columbia TN where she founded the Clean Community System in 1982, a community beautification program in which she used her prodigious people skills to martial municipal resources, organize volunteer groups, and create an “Adopt-a-Road” program, the results of which can still be seen today. Nancy later used these skills as a Sr. Vice President of First Farmers & Merchants National Bank where she founded the Chairman’s Club, hosting regional and international trips for hundreds of bank customers over the years. She was one of the first women to be invited into the Kiwanis Club of Columbia and was Business Woman of the Year in 1985. She retired in 1999, and moved to Spring Hill FL and Crossville TN, where she pursued her love of the outdoors and natural athleticism in golf, tennis, cycling, walking, ping pong, water aerobics, gardening, and fishing, always vigorously competing with, and ribbing, her children and friends. She was a long-time antique collector who made a sport of hunting for treasures and bargains and became an antique dealer in retirement. Nancy was a steadfast superfan of the Tennessee Vols and was known to strike up conversations with any stranger who crossed her path. Nancy was intelligent, energetic, and creative and will be remembered for her mischievous spirit and ribald sense of humor. Nancy is survived by her children, Betsy Bohannon (Martin Bailey), Jill Davenport, and Julie Nanney (David); her grandchildren, Charly and Bo Nanney; and her sister Diane Chiarantano. Nancy is preceded in death by her husband of 52 years, Jim L. Bohannon, and her parents, Florence and Joseph Chiarantano, and her sister Joann Hind. Memorials may be made to Young-Williams Animal Center, https://www.young-williams.org/support/ or Knoxville Mobile Meals (Meals on Wheels), knoxseniors.org.

Tributes

Nancy Bohannon

April 13, 1942 - June 9, 2023