Obituary for Georgia Belle McDaniel – The Herald-Mail

Georgia Belle Hughes McDaniel, 91, of Hagerstown, Maryland, peacefully stopped by her home in the early hours of June 3, 2023, with her youngest daughter by her side. Georgia spent her final days with family and friends.

Georgia Belle (the name she gave herself at age 5) was born Charlotte Ruby on January 22, 1932 to Robert and Elsie Hughes in the mountains of Buladean, North Carolina. She moved to Maryland with her parents in 1940, where her parents ran a farm and helped Georgia with all the household chores. Georgia skipped a grade in elementary school and graduated from Westminster High School in 1949 at the age of seventeen. She then worked as a telephone operator for the Bell Telephone Company.

In 1950 Georgia married Guy Sholl and they ministered for several years in Baltimore, Maryland. Georgia and Guy had two daughters, Sharon Naomi and Rebecca Melinda. After her divorce, Georgia worked as a stenographer for Sinclair Oil in Baltimore.

In 1962 she married Alonzo D. McDaniel and lived in Silver Run, MD. She and her eldest daughters owned and operated a local gas station for several years. Georgia and Alonzo had two children, Alonzo Eric and Michelle Lea. After the birth of her youngest children, Georgia became a full-time homemaker and the family moved to Hagerstown, Maryland in 1976.

Georgia loved being a mother to her four children and a grandmother to her six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her home was often the place where the neighborhood kids would gather and enjoy homemade desserts and homemade meals. Georgia worked tirelessly and had a strong work ethic. Since her husband was a long-distance driver, she mostly raised her two youngest children alone. Extremely independent, she mowed her own garden, planted trees and carried wood for the wood stove; Tasks that she continued until her late eighties. She kept an immaculate home, prepared amazing desserts from scratch, decorated wedding cakes for friends and family, and tended a vegetable garden and fruit trees. She got her motorcycle license at fifty and often took her husband’s Harley for spins.

Georgia had a big heart, a love for God, and compassion for the less fortunate. She often took in people in need of housing, prepared meals for the church, visited nursing homes, and helped others financially when she could.

Before Georgia died, her parents, her two husbands, and two sons-in-law, Philip Cromwell and Mark Main. She is survived by her brother John Hughes; her four children: Sharon Main, Rebecca Cromwell, Alonzo Eric McDaniel (Rita) and Michelle McDaniel (Jason Marren); her six grandchildren Scott Bigley, Heather Bigley (Kwang Lee), Jennifer Boehm (John), Mysteree Bush (Conner), Kelsey Calimer (Grant), Aaron McDaniel (Melissa) and her four great children Jack, Grace and Sophie Boehm and Elsie Bush. Her family has lost their matriarch, but heaven has gained an angel and her legacy will live on.

The family will hold a private memorial service in September.

Arrangements have been made with JL Davis Funeral Home and online condolences can be made at www.jldavisfh.com.

Published online June 20, 2023

Published in The Herald-Mail