Nancy English

Nancy Thompson English, age 86, of Duluth, Georgia, peacefully passed away on August 20, 2026, enveloped by the sound of her favorite music. Making music, traveling, baking, entertaining, tirelessly working and loving her family are each a hallmark of Nancy’s life.

The English family invites you to join them in celebrating Nancy’s life. Visitation from 6-8pm, Sunday, August 23, 2026, Bill Head Funeral Home – Duluth Chapel, 3088 Hwy 120, Duluth, GA 30096 Funeral Service at 10am, Monday, August 24, 2026, Bill Head Funeral Home – Duluth Chapel

A visitation will be held 2:30-3:00 pm, Monday, August 24, 2026, at Providence Baptist Church, 13778 SR 88 West, Avera, GA 30803. Graveside services will be held 3:30pm, Monday, August 24, 2026, in the English Family Cemetery, 11118 GA Hwy 171 North, Louisville, GA 30434

She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Rob English, daughter Kim English Marks (Chip), daughter-in-law Kelly English, grandchildren Mandy Marks, Erin Marks Stone (Dane Sylvest), Jordan English Brooker (Ryan), Brooks English, and great-grandson Bennett Brooker. Today, Nancy is fully restored in mind and body, now rejoicing with the Heavenly Host, after an extended, heroic battle with dementia.

Born Nancy Jane Thompson on February 21, 1940, to Hugh and Sarah Thompson, she grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, but lived in Pulaski, New York for kindergarten and first grade. Nancy’s lifelong love for music was born while there when she began taking piano lessons. Her tenacity to achieve her goals became apparent in 4H. She perfected a cherry pie recipe until she won the blue ribbon – a taste-testing memory neither of her siblings let her forget.

Her larger-than-life performance as Ado Annie in Oklahoma! is a legend among her Erskine College peers. Nancy met Rob, a handsome senior classman, while a freshman at Erskine. They married at the end of her sophomore year, in June of 1960. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Christian Education and Music from Oglethorpe University two years later – with a newborn and while also working as the organist for McElroy Memorial Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church.

Nancy taught piano for 20 years and embraced the Robert Pace Piano Method. She opened her home studio to children each day after school. The many young people who played piano there were also treated to winter and spring recitals in her home, where she served amazing homemade refreshments and gifted handmade Christmas ornaments.

Continuing her love of educating children, Nancy became the junior choir director at Doraville ARP Church in the early 1970s. For over a decade she led her elementary singers in children’s musical productions such as her own kids’ favorite, Cool in the Furnace. Concurrently, Nancy was also an accompanist for visiting clinicians directing the junior choir for Bonclarken Music Conference in Flat Rock, North Carolina.

During the late 1970s and 80s, Nancy embraced her choral prowess as a singer for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and became enamored with jazz music. She was pianist for the Dekalb College Jazz Band and a volunteer pianist for the Sequoyah High School Jazz Band. Nancy was very active in the National Jazz Association. She had the opportunity to travel to music conventions to hone her craft as a music educator and to experience the Montreux Jazz Festival on numerous occasions. From these travels, she found her niche. Nancy’s second career as a travel agent took flight and kept her busy until she retired at age 76. She and Rob traveled abroad and outside the continental U.S. many times, bringing back Christmas ornaments to remember each destination.

Parallel to her music and travel careers, Nancy was an ardent cheerleader for her husband’s high school baseball and basketball teams at both Briarcliff and Brookwood High Schools. When Rob transitioned from a high school teacher and coach to a Major League Baseball Scout for the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox, she was often his trusty sidekick scoping out young athletic talent and enjoying the perks of traveling to pennant race playoff games.

Nancy fiercely loved her daughter and son, supporting their extracurricular activities and molding them into hard-working adults who followed the examples set forth by both parents. Ironically, neither child enjoyed playing piano even though they worked Nancy’s last nerve as students. She tried! Throughout their childhoods, Nancy sacrificed, scrimped and saved every penny so Rob and she could turn each summer into a marvelous travel adventure – from the annual beach trip to Jekyll Island, to extended camping excursions to Washington D.C., up the Eastern seaboard to New England, and a cross-country trek circling the continental U.S.

Continuing that support for her grandchildren, Nancy (Gammy to her Georgia grandkids and Mimi to those in Florida) and Rob were frequently spotted in the crowd watching football, soccer, baseball, basketball and swim competitions in metro Atlanta and in south Florida.

Nancy and Rob have been faithful members of the Peachtree Corners Presbyterian Church (ARP) for nearly 30 years, and Nancy was affiliated with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church conference her entire life.

Nancy was proceeded in death by her son Russell English, grandson-in-law Bradley Stone, brother Henry Thompson, sister Mary Elizabeth Sullins, and parents Hugh and Sarah Thompson. They have been reunited and are rejoicing together in Heaven.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests gifts of live pollinator plants for the cemetery butterfly garden or to make a memorial donation to Peachtree Corners Presbyterian Church (ARP), 5918 Spalding Drive, Norcross, GA 30092.

Bill Head funeral home Duluth chapel in in charge of arrangement in Duluth.

Taylor funeral home and cremation services of Louisville is in charge of locale arrangements.