Madge Griffin Booth Ponder
July 4, 1924 – January 13, 2026
Madge Griffin Booth Ponder, 101, of Cairo, GA, passed away at the Wight Inpatient Hospice Center in Thomasville, GA, on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. She was born on July 4, 1924, in Eufaula, AL to the late Andrew Hugh Griffin and Bonnie Ethel Atkins Griffin.
Services will be held at Gordon Heights Baptist Church where she and her husband, Murray, were charter members serving faithfully and actively until their deaths. Funeral services for Mrs. Ponder are at 2:00 p.m., Friday, January 16, 2026, at Gordon Heights Baptist Church, Cairo, GA. Rev. William Hurst will officiate. Private interment will be in the Cairo Cemetery, Cairo, GA.
During the war years, 1942 to 1945, she worked in Panama City, FL, at the R. D. Herbert Shipyard in the bookkeeping department for 2 years. She and Murray returned to Cairo in 1955, where Murray taught in the Grady County School System until his retirement. Madge worked in Cairo with the Department of Agriculture for over 37 years. She retired in 1990. After Murray’s death in 1997, she married Wesley Ponder who preceded her in death in 2003.
Madge liked to travel. During her lifetime she went to the Holy Land, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Italy, Switzerland and every state in the lower 48 states. She always wanted to go to Alaska but never made it.
Survivors include: her stepchildren, Roger Ponder of Tallahassee, FL, Rita Ponder of Lyons, GA; stepdaughter-in-law, Krystal Ponder of Metter, GA; step-grandchildren, Greg and Liza Ponder of Statesboro, GA, Steve and Robin Brock of Americus, GA; step-great-grand-children, Maggie, Thomas, and Lindsey Ponder of Statesboro, GA, Wesley Ponder Brock of Americus, GA; her brother’s children, Thomas K. and Kiyomi Griffin of Farmington, VA, Robert H. Griffin of Houston, TX, James A. “Tony” and Cynthia Griffin of Chapin, SC; special cousins, Carolyn Newsome, Charles and Nancy Griffin; and a niece, Dot Booth Moses James.
She was preceded in death by: her parents; her husband of 54 years, Murray Booth; her husband, Wesley Ponder; stepson, Ronald Ponder; her brother, Elbert Griffin and his wife Nellie Maxwell Griffin Thain; and a nephew, Sydney E. Griffin.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Mrs. Ponder’s memory to: Gordon Heights Baptist Church, 1351 5th Street SE, Cairo, GA 39828.
The family will receive friends at Gordon Heights Baptist Church on Friday, January 16, 2026, from 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m.
