CORDELE — A memorial service for Doris J. Drinnon of Cordele, retired school teacher and nutrition counselor with the University System of Georgia, will be held Saturday, April 9, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. in the chapel of Rainey Family Funeral Services. The family will greet friends at the funeral home prior to the service from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Mrs. Drinnon  passed away Wednesday, March 9, 2016 at Southeast Georgia Health Systems, Camden Campus in St. Marys, GA.  A native of Gray, KY, she was the daughter of the late Margaret Sevier Grace and Jack Grace. She also was preceded in death by her husband, Ralph E. Drinnon and a son, Garfield Robert “Bobby”   Drinnon, II.  Doris was accepted into Lincoln Memorial University at the age of sixteen.  She was often called by her classmates as “Skip one grade Grace”.  She got her first teaching job in a small mining town in Virginia and then later became a nutrition counselor associated with the University of Georgia working at the local Extension Office in Cordele. She was a member of the Pilot Club, the Eastern Star, and sometimes taught Sunday School at First United Methodist Church in Cordele. She was a noted author, publishing her first book of poems in 1985 entitled “Seedlin” Poems of  Poet Tree”.  She later went on to publish a fictional novel of intrigue entitled “The President’s Chambers” about a female FBI agent hired to work inside the White House after a plot to kill the President unfolded. This was published in 2007. She was working on a sequel to this novel at the time of her passing. The title for this book was to be “Murders in December.” Her daughters hope to finish her last work for her.  Her writing career also included a column called “Meandering” in the local Cordele Dispatch, the newspaper where her husband was Editor for over 20 years. These feature articles awarded her an Associated Press Award. Surviving her are two daughters, Cheryl Drinnon LeBlanc and her husband, C.J. LeBlanc of Kingsland and Jackie Drinnon Wert of Albany; a daughter-in-law, Dorothy Drinnon of Cordele; eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. The family requests that memorial gifts be made to Samaritan’s Purse, PO Box 3000, Boone, NC 28607 or online at www.samaritanspurse.org, SGHS Foundation, 2415 Parkwood Drive Brunswick, GA 31520, Hospice of the Golden Isles, 1692 Glynco Parkway, Brunswick, GA. 31525 or online at www.hospice.me, Brunswick, GA or the Camden County Humane Society, 950 S Grove Blvd., Kingsland, GA 31548 or online at www.humanecamden.org