Bertha Benning Buffington

Bertha Benning Buffington, age 90, was reunited in Heaven with her husband of nearly 60 years, Donald Renard Buffington, on Tuesday, October 1, 2019.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia on December 1, 1928, to Theodore Russell Benning and Gertrude Landon Benning, she was predeceased by her husband Don, parents and brothers, Theodore Russell Benning Jr. and Francis Harrison Benning.

An Atlanta city resident all her life, she attended R. L. Hope Elementary School and North Fulton High School – where she discovered her love of and talent for art and music. A member of the Cathedral of St Philip for 78 years, she began singing in the Junior Choir at age 8 and continued singing in the choir until she was 44.

During her college years she studied at The High Museum Art School, Georgia State University and Auburn University, finding her niche at Winthrop University where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and graduated with a B.A. in Art in 1951.

After college, she worked at the Atlanta Boy Scout Office and volunteered for The Red Cross. Then in 1953, she joined her father and older brother Ted in starting the family business, Benning Construction Company, initially being the Secretary and bookkeeper. Wanting to take a more active role in the construction business itself, she went back to night school at Georgia Tech in 1955 where she met her husband Don in an estimating class. They married in 1956 and within a few years she left the construction business to raise their children and pursue volunteer work.

In the 60s, she also helped her father with his hobby of running Peachtree Gardens, an old fashioned authentic swing band dance club he owned and that in its heyday in the 1930s through 1950s hosted weekly dances and special events. Though the times had changed, the family continued holding monthly dances at Peachtree Gardens for faithful members until her father’s death in 1972.
For many years, she was a Daughter of the King and wedding coordinator at the Cathedral of St. Philip and an active member for over 20 years in The Young Matrons Circle for Tallulah Falls School (nka “The Circle for Children”) being President twice.

In her later years, she and her daughter, Lana, prepared care packages of toys and schools supplies for our soldiers to distribute to school children in Iraq and Afghanistan and participated in the homeless ministry of the Cathedral – preparing and serving meals for the Peachtree Pine Shelter. Later, she also joined a dedicated knitting group at the Cathedral making scarves, hats, and holiday bunnies and stockings for the patients at Children’s Healthcare in Dunwoody.

She is survived by: her children, Herbert Russell Buffington (Bryan Freeman) and Donna Landon (Lana)Buffington; her stepson, Donald Renard Buffington, Jr. (Patricia); his two sons, Donald R. Buffington III (Mara) and William Edwin Buffington (Kim); and his three grandchildren, Nathan, Audra, and William Buffington.

She is also survived by sisters Louise Benning Hall, Margaret Benning Woehst, Gertrude Benning Dacres and thirteen nieces and nephews – Henry Dacres, Margee Bright Ragland, Serey Andree, Ted Benning, Roxie Melton, George Steffner, Elizabeth Knott, P.J. Enix, Virginia Rice, Harrison Benning, Louise Jones, Kem Morgan and Tommie Storer.

The funeral will be held in the Nave of The Cathedral of St. Philip (Episcopal), 2744 Peachtree Rd., NW on Thursday, October 17 at 2 PM immediately followed by interment in the Cathedral’s Memorial Garden and a reception in Gould Hall.

In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made to the discretionary fund for the needy at the Cathedral.