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ThursdayDecember 18, 2025

Middle Tennessee in memoriam, 2025

holding hands
Tasha A.F. LemleyWPLN News
A listener-driven show to remember Middle Tennesseans who died in 2025 and the contributions to their community.
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Mary Elizabeth Vinett died on November 21, 2025, and her family decided her 90 years on the planet deserved more than the average obituary. So they tried to capture her essence starting with the first paragraph. 

“Beth was loved by all, perhaps because she was so outrageously funny,” they wrote. “A storyteller extraordinaire who changed the essence of a room just by entering it. She smoked with a style and elegance that made you wonder why you ever quit.”

May we all be remembered so colorfully.

The end of the year puts us in a reflective mood, so collectively we’re remembering those we’ve lost in Middle Tennessee during 2025. With the help of listeners submitting one-minute memorials or calling in live, we’re celebrating long lives and lives cut short and remembering their contributions to our community, large and small.   

Plus, a visit to the East Nashville wind telephone, where calls connect to lost loved ones.

Guests:

  • Christal Pennic, therapist and founder of The Grief Center
  • Almeta Slater-Rogers, founder and CEO of UnSaid Memories 

Further reading:

  • Jen Alexander
  • Bobby Cain
  • Dot Dobbins
  • Lucille Duke
  • Alfonzo Escobar
  • Vincent Martin Marquez
  • Ruel Oquindo
  • Marjorie Pisapia
  • Mary Elizabeth Vinett
  • Ridley Wills II

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