Martha Downs Clements

Published 9:27 am Monday, August 30, 2021

Martha Downs Clements, 80, of Pine Mountain passed away on Aug. 28, 2021, at Saint Francis Hospital in Columbus, Georgia.  She was born June 15, 1941, in Elberton, Georgia, the fourth of five children of Frank Arden and Anne Garrett Downs, and grew up on a seventy-two-acre farm in Oconee County, Georgia in the Bogart/Statham area.  She attended small public schools of Oconee County and graduated from the newly consolidated Oconee County High school with honors in 1959.  She graduated from University of Georgia (BS in chemistry) with honors in 1962.  She married Mack Clements her senior year at the Medical College of Georgia where they both received their MD degrees in 1966.  She and her husband interned at Floyd County Hospital in Rome, Georgia.

In 1967, Dr. Martha and her husband opened a small rural clinic in Pine Mountain which had been without a doctor for several years.  Within six months, the doctor in Greenville suffered a heart attack, and therefore, she and her husband opened a second clinic.  Her patients were her extended family.  She and her husband worked two clinics independently for 48 years before working the clinics the last years as employees of the hospital in LaGrange.  Dr. Martha and her husband retired from practice in December of 2020 after 53 and half years of service.

Dr. Martha attended and served as Chairman of the Board at the First United Methodist Church of Pine Mountain.  She also worked with the MYF, taught Sunday School and played handbells in the choir.  She served on the Harris County Board of Health at the time of her death and was Chairman of the Board from several years.  She enjoyed deer hunting, dove hunting, fishing, gardening and plowing the food plots at the river.  She shared vegetables from the garden with a number of her patients.

Dr. Martha is preceded in death by her parents and her in-laws Holmes W. and Pearl H. Clements of Greenville, Georgia.  She is survived by her husband, Mack H. Clements, MD of Pine Mountain; her daughters, D. Lyn Clements of Pine Mountain, and Page C. (Cory) Flynn of Pine Mountain Valley, Georgia; her grandchildren, Katelyn R. Flynn (fiancé Chad Henderson) of Lowndesboro, Alabama, Grant C. Flynn of Athens, Georgia and Leslie Anne Flynn of Statesboro, Georgia; her siblings, Robert A. (Joy) Downs of Statham, Georgia, G. Glenn (Barbara) Downs of Statham, Georgia, Mary Ann (Ryland) Edwards of Smithfield, Virginia and W. C. “Bill” (Dot) Downs of LaGrange; her aunt, Claire McDougald of Statham, Georgia; her uncle, Dick Garrett of Statham, Georgia; her brother-in-law, Holmes W. (Blanche) Clements of Concord, Georgia; and several cousins, nieces and nephews.

The family wishes to acknowledge the current increase in concern over the Covid pandemic and the impact it has on all our decisions to gather in public place.  A private family funeral service will be held at the Woodbury Cemetery with the Dr. John A. Beyers officiating.

The family is asking that in lieu of flower donations be made to the Mack Clements, MD and Martha Clements, MD Scholarship through the Medical College of Georgia Foundation at mcgfoundation.org/clementsscholarship/ or mail your donation to Medical College of Georgia Foundation, Attn: Ralph Alee, 720 Saint Sebastian Way, Suite 150, Augusta, Georgia 30901.

Cox Funeral Home in Hamilton is in charge of arrangements.