Turman, Annabelle Webb
My mom, Myrtle Annabelle Webb Turman, also known as Annabelle M. Turman, born September 15, 1934, peacefully passed on May 29, 2024 at 4:00am at the age of 89. There is great hope and well-earned trust that she is in good standing in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and loving family.
Annabelle was one of 4 children of Bruce Clark Webb and Blanch Carnell Webb. She was preceded in death by her husband, Toby Lee Turman, on August 21, 2019, son Toby Lane Turman, and her brothers, Carl B. Webb and Maynard O. Webb. Her sister, Glenna Webb Watson and her husband Billy Watson, reside in Fairlawn, Virginia. Glenna’s son, C. Edward Watson, just wrote another book called “Teaching with A.I.” Annabelle is a distant relative of Loretta Lynn.
My dad, Toby Lee Turman, met my mom in grade school and they graduated together from Draper High school. They fell in love when my dad was delivering groceries in his father’s truck at the age of 9. They were married in 1953. They were inseparable and were married for 66 years and I never heard them argue about anything.
I am her only remaining child, Kiley Dean Turman, also known as Dean K. Turman. I left home at 15, but got reacquainted with my mom for 5 years after the death of my dad when she moved to Florida to live in a house I built for her next to mine. She also had a son, Toby Lane Turman, who was killed by his co-worker in an accident while driving a drill rig on the side of a highway in San Diego, California when he was 23. His daughter, Brandy Lane Turman, died in Pennsylvania as a passenger in an automobile accident when she was 23. Growing up my mom came to all the heated meetings with my principals and teachers. She always visited the juvenile facilities that held me. She worked as a hairdresser for 35 years. She shoveled snow and cut grass for decades keeping immaculate gardens. We lived in Tunisia, Africa, for a year and Panama, Central America, for 9 months. She accompanied my dad wherever his work led him in the U.S. and around the world and got to visit Egypt, Thailand, Japan and Hawaii.
Traveling to 46 states with their sons, my brother started first grade in 6 different schools in the same year. She was pregnant with me in a little shack in freezing Vermont on a job site where an explosion sent a bolder smashing into their parked car. She said there were icicles on my brother’s crib. My dad flew his small plane and me from Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, to North Adams, Massachusetts, for a year while he worked on the Bear Swamp project. Off we went in the Cessna 150 every Monday morning returning every Friday so he could spend time with my mom. She helped build their homes in Dalton, Pennsylvania, and Lexington, Kentucky, their retirement home in Kissimmee, Florida, and their final home in Allisonia, Virginia.
Because my dad went in mines all around the world, he always brought back precious stones and had many made into jewelry for my mom. In South America he watched small children going down holes in the ground with ropes tied to their ankles, holes they dug to recover diamonds. She received gems from Peru, Bolivia, Pakistan, Turkey, Argentina, Spain, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Guatemala, Mexico, Morocco, Egypt, China, Columbia, Australia, and most of the 50 countries in which he worked. After a mine explosion in China, she went two days believing my dad was in the mine, only to find out 48 hours later his driver had arrived late, and they had escaped the explosion.
Right and wrong were not so confusing back then. My mom knew the difference. She also had a gift: as a beautician she could make people look good. She always knew what worked for people and she gave them hope. She never advertised and her clients would never leave her. She would “fix hair” even at the funeral home when they passed. Many of her clients would have followed her to Florida when she retired if she let them.
Webb humor till the end, she made fun of many hats she saw people wearing wondering if they knew how it made them look. She was a beautiful lady until the end and she loved everyone.
My mom’s remains will be placed in the Turman family graveyard next to my dad behind the old Marshal’s store over the hill and halfway down the field on the left in Pulaski County, Virginia, near Allisonia.
My mom was Victorious in life and in death. Until we meet again. Peace to Israel. A memorial service will be held later in the Summer.
Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.seaglefuneralhome.com Arrangements by Seagle Funeral Home, Pulaski, VA 540-980-1700
