Nelma Crutcher

Crutcher worked for Horizon Hospital in Dickson, Tennessee for over forty-two years.^[1] At the time of her retirement, she was the director of laboratory services.^[1]

Crutcher was an active member of the Fort Donelson 1582 Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and held various leadership positions within the national society.^[1][2] She served as the Tennessee Division President of the UDC before serving as the national society's Second Vice President General.^[1][2] Crutcher acquired scholarships for students through the United Daughters of the Confederacy and played an instrumental role in obtaining a Tennessee State monument at Vicksburg National Military Park, which was dedicated on June 29, 1996.^[3] She placed seventy-seven grave markers in the cemetery at Vicksburg.^[1]

From 2018 to 2020, Crutcher served as the society's President General. Following a call for the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials in Alabama, Crutcher released a statement on behalf of the United Daughters of the Confederacy claiming that the UDC never engaged in public controversy and advocating for descendants of Confederate soldiers to be able to honor the memory of their ancestors.^[4] She also stated that Confederate veterans were Americans and that the United Daughters of the Confederacy does not "impose the standards of the 19th century on Americans of the 21st century."^[5]

In March 2019, she released a statement regarding the removal of the Confederate Soldiers Monument from Forsyth County Courthouse in Winston-Salem, North Carolina saying, "To some, these memorial statues and markers are viewed as divisive and thus unworthy of being allowed to remain in public places. To others, they simply represent a memorial to our forefathers who fought bravely during four years of war."^[6][7] She went on to condemn the use of Confederate images to promote hatred.^[6] She had previously made statements denouncing white supremacy.^[8]

Crutcher was a United Methodist and a parishioner of Taylor Chapel United Methodist Church in Dover.^[1] She volunteered with the Stewart County Completely One Ministries and the Stewart County Back to School Bash.^[1]

She died on January 17, 2022. She was buried in the Taylor Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery.^[1]