Hatcher & Saddler Funeral Home

Donna Oliver High

April 18, 1948     ~     August 23, 2020

Donna Kate Oliver High was born April 18, 1948 at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Donna spent the next 72 years as a Christ centered, eternally motivated, family focused, servant minded, others focused, prayer warrior whose best love language was shared in the form of Southern country cooking and gatherings at her home in Nashville, Tennessee.

Donna left her earthly tent, surrounded by her family, on August 23, 2020 at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville. The songs Give Me Jesus and What a Friend we Have in Jesus played on her iPhone as she took her final breaths. She was preceded in death by her father, Gasper Oliver and her mother Mary Katherine Whitaker Oliver.

Donna is survived by her soul mate and husband of 50 golden years, Junior Lee High, of Nashville; her three sons, their beautiful wives and six grandchildren that will carry on her legacy of faith – Brent High (Emily, Houston and Hunter), Chad High (Laura Beth, Lawton and Carolina) and Lance High (Heather, Henley and Hartman), all from Nashville; her older brother Steve Oliver (Dianne) of Talladega, Alabama; her younger sister Pam Oliver Bishop and nephew Charles Bishop, both of Nashville.

As a young girl, Donna attended the Tarrant Church of Christ, just outside of Birmingham, Alabama where she was baptized into Christ in her teens. It was there that she developed a love for singing and specifically the old, traditional hymns in the songbook. During her high school years, Gary Thompson, the volunteer youth leader at Tarrant used to take the youth group members to the summer lectures at then David Lipscomb College in Nashville. Donna loved participating in the chorus that sang every night and enjoyed staying in the dorm with her friends. It was during those summer trips that she made David Lipscomb her college of choice.

Donna graduated in 1966 from Tarrant High School. She met Junior at David Lipscomb her sophomore year as they worked side by side in the school cafeteria. They married on September 13, 1969. Donna graduated with an elementary education degree from David Lipscomb in 1970.

Donna’s professional career of 28 years with Metro Nashville Public Schools consisted of two spans. The first span, from 1970-1974, found her at Pearl Elementary School and Paragon Mills Elementary School.  She spent the next 12 years at home, raising her three boys, before taking on a new role at Harpeth Valley Elementary. She closed out her teaching career, serving for 21 years as a teacher and technology coordinator at Percy Priest Elementary.

Donna was a faithful member of the Brentwood Hills Church of Christ for 50 years, beginning her association with the congregation in the late 60’s when the church met in the old mansion that used to stand on the property. Over those 50 years she was heavily involved with the children’s, youth and college ministries, teaching Sunday School and Vacation Bible School classes, building Children’s Worship Training, teaching in the Inner City Ministry program, launching a cutting edge “learning centers” experience, spearheading the beginning of the Lads to Leaders program, hosting college small groups for meals and serving as a teacher and counselor at Brentwood Hills Christian Camp.

In her final 21 years she honorably served as the wife of an elder at Brentwood Hills, facilitating women’s Bible studies while counseling and faithfully praying with fellow members and couples through many painful and tragic moments. Donna founded S.H.I.N.E. (Sharing Hope In Nashville Education), a mentoring and equipping program for teachers and students at Cole Elementary School. She looked forward to helping every December at Breakfast with Santa.

For 16 consecutive years, Donna led the cooking efforts for a construction crew that traveled to Camp Shiloh in New York. In 2015 she and Junior traveled to Europe for three months as part of the Lipscomb in Vienna program. There they taught classes and mentored more than 25 college students while seeing six different countries.

Beginning in the fall of 1992, Donna began hosting “Sunday Lunch” at her house. Virtually every Sunday for the last 28 years you would find a yard full of vehicles and a table filled with family, friends, laughter and the most delicious homemade Southern meals you can imagine. Donna truly embraced cooking as a ministry. It’s hard to find anyone at Brentwood Hills that hasn’t experienced her love in a dish, in a pan or on a plate.

Donna loved dogs. She raised dozens of Basset Hound puppies in the 1980’s and 1990’s including Daisy and Elvira. Her last two dogs, Prissy and Snickers, were Labrador retrievers.

Donna loved listening to Christian music, hymns and sermons. She loved encouraging others via text. It is quite possible she holds the record for most uses of the ???and ?? emojis in the history of text messaging.

Donna attended every recital, concert, game and performance she possibly could that featured her children and grandchildren. She was their number one fan.

Donna loved sweet tea, trips to the beach, spending time at the High family farm in Tompkinsville, Kentucky and using her Amazon Prime membership. Her Italian blood would show from time to time whenever she had a craving for The Old Spaghetti Factory and Olive Garden.

A celebration of Donna’s life will be held on Sunday, August 30, 2020 at 3 p.m. at Brentwood Hills Church of Christ located at 5120 Franklin Road, Nashville, Tennessee 37220. Family and close friends will be presiding. The service will be broadcast live and archived on the Brentwood Hills website (www.brentwoodhills.org) as well as the Brentwood Hills Facebook page.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that financial contributions be made to Encouragement Ministries (www.encouragementministries.net) and to Lipscomb University (www.lipscomb.edu), earmarked for the Junior and Donna High Scholarship fund to benefit future teachers.

Donna is more alive today than she has ever been. She’s holding her baby girl Katherine that she lost seven months into her pregnancy in 1979. She’s reunited with her mother, her father, her grandparents, Papa Dave and Granny Nell High and her dear friends Jim Martin and Sara Walker. She has heard the words, “Well done good and faithful servant” from Jesus himself.

While her physical race on this earth is over, her legacy lives on. Even now as you read these words, Donna encourages you to accept the gift of grace and forgiveness of sin Jesus offers. All you have to do is accept the gift. There’s nothing you can do to earn it. There’s also nothing you’ve ever done or will do that will separate you from the opportunity to embrace this gift, that sacrifice and that love.

If you’ve never accepted that gift, please find Junior or one of Donna’s sons or daughters-in-law and tell them you’re ready to discover what Donna treasured the most on this earth – her relationship with Jesus.