Joe Green

MARSHALL – Joe Green passed away on August 20, 2023, at CarePartners Hospice Solace Center in Asheville.

Joe was born on October 4, 1931 in Madison County, North Carolina. He was the son of the late George E. and Lucy Tweed Green. He is also preceded in death by sisters, Kate Green, Christine Green Ponder, Mary Ruth Black (William), and Geneva Roberts (James).

Mr. Green is survived by his wife, Claudia Fox Green; sons, Keith Green (Mark Starr), George Marq Green, and Matthew Allen Green; sisters, Belva Crum, Berniece Welch, Doris Jean Sprinkle; and brother, Bruce Green (Virginia), and many other beloved nieces and nephews, including especially Kate Welch Martin (Greg), for whom he and Claudia made a home for a time.

Mr. Green’s funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, August 25, 2023 in the Chapel of West Funeral Home. Reverend Mary Caldwell and Reverend Ray Bailey will officiate. The burial will be at Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in Marshall at 1:00pm; and Rev. Bob Belford will offer prayers at the commendation.

Throughout his life, Mr. Green and his wife, Claudia, have been faithful members of their church family as well, most recently at Woodland Hills Baptist Church (now GracePoint).  Evidently, only Joe remembered where, and by whom he was baptized, and adopted into the church family.  Over the years, he served as a deacon at Marshall Baptist Church, Jupiter Baptist Church, and Woodland Hills Baptist Church.   

Mr. Green deeply valued education, and devoted his working life to guiding and teaching in public schools.  In the course of his own education, he graduated from Red Oak School (in Weaverville, NC) in 1949, and after serving in the United States Air Force, from Garder-Webb (1957) and Carson-Newman Universities (1959).  He went on to earn two master’s degrees in history and education at Western Carolina University.  Mr. Green commenced his career as a teacher at Bethel High School in Canton, NC; and continued, over the years, as a guidance counselor at Clyde A. Erwin and North Buncombe High Schools, in Buncombe County, North Carolina. 

Mr. Green’s true love, over the course of his whole life, was gardening, and he could successfully cultivate almost anything.  Following retirement Joe worked, for a time, as a gardener at the Biltmore Estate, and at the Asheville Farmer’s Market at Whitt’s Produce.  Joe’s friends and family will always remember him for his love and cultivation of apples, rhubarb, greasy cut-short beans, and many other things that grew in his garden.  Throughout his life, a love of cultivation perhaps best describes the overarching theme of his life, love, and work.

Condolences may be offered to the family under Mr. Green’s obituary at www.WestFamilyFuneralServices.com for those who are otherwise unable to be with the family at this time.  The family asks that in lieu of flowers, a donation be made to the Oak Grove Church Cemetery in memory of Joe.