12/17/2025
Clive Kevin Sumner
“He Loved Life, Sweet Libertie, Hated Injustice, And the Tyrant”
Clive Kevin Sumner, 90, known to all as ‘‘Kevin’’ died in Milledgeville, Georgia, on Saturday, September 6, 2025, at the Baldwin ER. Though he intended to make it to 100 years, his brave heart gave out on him at 1:07 am, just over a month before his 91st birthday.
Kevin is preceded in death by his parents, Lucy Estelle Weeks Sumner and Joe Brown Sumner, two brothers, Elton Astor Sumner, Hilsman ‘‘Toot’’ Tift Sumner, a sister, Annelle Sumner Hart, and many generations of his Sumner and Weeks forbears across South Georgia.
He is survived by his ex-wife and mother of his children, Reba Mercer Sumner of Woodstock; sister, Jarrelle Baker of Norman Park; children, Geoffrey Sumner (Clarita) of Stone Mountain, Camille DeLise (Paul) of Woodstock, and Heather Klemm (John) of Bonaire; Grandchildren: Nadine Sumner of Yangon, Myanmar, Alan Sumner (Danielle) of Toccoa, Mallory DeLise and Gina DeLise of Woodstock, and Vincent DeLise of Atlanta, Katherine Carter of Macon, Rebecca Carter of Athens and Mason Carter of Buford; and two great-grandchildren, Isaiah Sumner and Jeremiah Sumner, both of Toccoa, and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was born on the family farm of about 220 acres near Ellenton on October 26, 1934, in Colquitt County and was named Valedictorian of his 1950 graduating class of Norman Park High School. He used to say, “I didn’t leave the farm, I escaped the farm”, no doubt due to Great Depression hardships of farming life he was born into. Ploughing the ground with a mule held too little appeal for him. But opportunities of the post-WW2 boom and education offered a possible way out. Through hard work and good fortune, he was able to gain admittance to Mercer University in Macon, becoming the first in his family to attend and graduate college. His father Joe Brown blessed him on his way with an enormous copy of Webster’s International Dictionary, Unabridged 2nd Edition, saying that he’d better learn all the words contained therein. Kevin was indeed a voracious learner and reader, who also excelled in sports of all kinds, and was fiercely competitive. He earned a Track-and-Field scholarship as a walk-on member of the Mercer Track Team. Cross-country was his best event, and in which he won every race he ever competed. He joined the U.S. Army ROTC at Mercer to help pay for his college expenses, and also paid his way by working for the U.S. Postal Service and just about any other part-time job he could find in Macon. He was proud to have witnessed the young Hank Aaron play baseball while visiting Macon, still with the minor league Jacksonville Tars, before becoming a big star for the major-league Braves. He remained a lifelong Braves fan.
In 1953 he was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree before being commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne, first as 2nd Lieutenant, and soon promoted to 1st Lieutenant. After stateside training assignments, he was stationed in Heidelberg and Munich, West Germany. Serving in Europe at the height of the Cold-War, he also became a member of the U.S. Army National Track Team, medaling in 1, 2, and 3-Mile races. He made dozens of jumps as a paratrooper and also enjoyed high-altitude skydiving on the side. His soldiers admired him because he demonstrated true leadership and looked after them. The Fighting 82nd Airborne of that day saw constant training and exercises, and were often placed on high alert during the numerous international crises of the 1950’s, such as the Suez Crisis of 1956.
He married his high school sweetheart, Reba Virginia Mercer, on September 5, 1954, and together they raised Geoff, Camille and Heather, while living in West Germany, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Decatur, Perry, Albany and Valdosta, Georgia over the course of 40 years before divorcing in 1994.
Though Kevin’s parents were not religious, even regarding organized religion as mostly a scam, they possessed and lived by a strong moral code of right and wrong. Kevin named his dad an “old pagan”, oblivious to the paltry Bible Belt religious conventions surrounding him. At the time Jim Crow laws and strict racial segregation were the norm. Everyday racism and racial humiliation of black people was rife, yet Joe Brown insisted on treating everyone fairly. Due to declining health in his final years, Joe Brown had traded the family farm for a small grocery store and a home in Ellenton, and built an outdoor basketball court his land, an empty lot directly in front of their home, for any young person to use, black or white. As there were no public parks or spaces for kids to play in Ellenton, this filled a vital need. If kids wanted to play, they had a place, and if they lacked a ball, they only needed to knock on the door to borrow one. Joe Brown Sumner had a big heart and wasn’t afraid of much. He was a peaceful man, but when someone crossed him, it was said, “there was no peace”. For example, Joe Brown accepted trade from both races at his store, which enraged the local turpentine overseer who employed the old “company store” swindle to keep his black turpentine-harvesters perpetually indebted and in poverty. When threatened over this, Joe Brown refused to back down, roughly telling the overseer to mind his own business, he’d trade with whomever he wanted, and to get out.
As a kid Kevin also heard first-hand whispered accounts and saw the photos of periodic local lynchings and murders, such as in nearby Bayboro and Cool Springs. It didn’t happen a lot, but it happened enough. Across the country and in the South, untold thousands were killed in this way, instilling a form of terror used to “keep people in their place”. Bayboro was the location of an extralegal mass murder that went unreported, unacknowledged, and one that remains all but forgotten today. Five black turpentine mill workers were shot dead by a “posse” for playing cards on Sunday, “gambling and being sorry”. They are buried together, in an unmarked mass grave near the mill. No one was ever held accountable.
It was from such formative experiences, his time in college and the Army, and other unknown forces, that he forged a sharp sense of justice and kinship with the underdog. He became a Christian and served as an active member and deacon under the bold leadership of Pastor John Nichol at the beloved Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia during the turbulent but hopeful 1960’s period. That church collectively asked themselves a fundamental question - “who was Jesus Christ but the champion of the oppressed?”. Oakhurst Baptist Church became the first white church to integrate in Atlanta, placing it in grave danger of racist violence as happened at the time, like the widely reported K*K bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 that killed 4 little girls sitting in Sunday School class in nearby Birmingham, Alabama.
He sold life insurance for many years and was transferred to middle Georgia in 1970. Moving the family to Perry, he earned the enmity of the local power structure by opposing the use of Perry church monies to set up an all-white private “Christian academy”. These old Perry families were simply unable to cope with racial integration of the public schools. It is well known that such segregation academies were established all over the South at that time in the name of Christianity. Kevin called out the hypocrisy of hiding behind religion and the improper use of church funds. He inconveniently exposed these misdeeds and other more serious misdeeds as well, such as the secret theft of county-owned construction materials to help build the aforementioned racist school. Most unforgivably, he helped set up a racially integrated, inclusive county youth sports program in Perry, which thrives to this day. Prior to this, none existed. The bigots harassed him and the entire family in uncountable ways, using every cowardly method imaginable, attacking his livelihood, even having the police tail family automobiles around town. When nothing worked to stop him, they trumped up false criminal charges, which he handily defeated in court, though at great financial cost. He became a Lutheran due to the unbearable sanctimoniousness and cowardice of white Baptists in that town, and was the better for it. He ran for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives, but did not prevail.
Kevin had a gregarious sense of humor, but was not without faults. He struggled with money and relationships. He was the world’s worst photographer, hands down. He was famous for taking vacation photos with heads chopped off, or forgetting to take the lens cover off his 8mm movie camera, and missing everything. Excursions were often poorly planned, at times bordering on being dangerous, yet he had a strong guardian spirit watching over him as things always worked out. He was very hard on automobiles. There were many ill-fated “big idea” home projects, like trying to dam a small backyard creek to form a pond, which worked wonderfully for about a week, until the next major thunderstorm destroyed the dam completely.
On the other hand, Kevin was a good man to know when the chips were down. He might have made a brilliant lawyer, had he been so inclined. For example, he was instrumental in raising awareness and monies for the campaign to obtain justice for Sheila Bryan of Omega, a neighbor wrongfully accused and convicted of murder and arson in 1997 based on false testimony, and serving a sentence of “life+ 20 years” in prison, which the Supreme Court of Georgia finally overturned in 1999, but only because good and decent people like himself stood up. He was a born fighter and helped many others on all sorts of matters, legal and otherwise. It takes people like him to change things, and that’s the truth.
Kevin returned to South Georgia in late life, settling eventually in Moultrie. He was an avid fan of the Colquitt County Packers high school football team and member of the VFW. Kevin moved into the Georgia War Veterans Home in Milledgeville in 2024, where he was beloved by the many friends he made there. A consummate Southerner and story-teller, he loved sports, nature and fishing. He was one of a kind, full of courage, and will be sorely missed by those who loved him. He could not fathom the ugly rise of American-style fascism and dictatorship in the United States, with so many clueless people voting away their own hard-won rights and freedoms. It was anathema to everything he lived and stood for. To the end, however, he said, “justice will prevail”.
He was cremated and a simple graveside memorial service will be held at Weeks Chapel in Colquitt County, at 10 am Saturday, January 3, 2026. All who loved him are invited.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to Global Health Partners - www.ghpartners.org – an inspiring organization that provides the most vulnerable with vital medical aid.
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