Womack, Mark Sanders, Jr.
Monday, December 28, 2020
Mark Womack
Mark Sanders Womack, Jr., after a long and most interesting life, died on December 25, 2020.
Born on Dec. 31, 1923, in Manchester, Tn., to Ethel Moody Womack and Mark S. Womack, Sr., he was raised in Murfreesboro, graduating from Central High School in 1942. He began his career as an operator for the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad and was a life long practioner of telegraphy. Married to Elizabeth Harrell on June 26 1943, he was drafted into the United States Army in 1943. Serving in Europe, Womack was the last surviving member of the 753rd Railroad Transportation Battalion. Released from active duty in February, 1946, he returned to his home and resumed his career with the NC & St.L Railroad and worked in Murfreesboro, Bridgeport, Cowan, and Chattanooga. While working, he completed his degree at the then Middle Tennessee State College. With the merger of the NC & StL and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, he was assigned as Assistant Train Master for the Chattanooga-Nashville Division, and as Freight Agent for the Huntsville, Alabama Station and then back to Chattanooga as Rules Examiner for the L&N, which led to several years in Louisville and eventually to Jacksonville, Florida where he ended his career as superintendent of Rules for the SeaBoard Coast Line RR. He also served as Secretary of the National Association of Rules Examiners, was a recognized authority in the field and served as an expert witness on several occasions. He published articles on railroad history in several publications and often contributed letters to the editor of local papers. Mark was the last employee to work in the Union Station. Joining Jones Memorial Methodist Church in 1954, he was an active layman, serving as church lay leader, the Chattanooga District as lay leader and as Holston Conference Lay Leader. Following his retirement from the railroad, he became a local pastor in the United Methodist Church and served Payne's Chapel and Clifton Hills United Methodist churches and eventually served as minister of pastoral visitation at Jones Memorial.