Martha Ann Abbott Post
God blesses certain individuals with many gifts and talents. Martha Ann Abbott Post is one of those individuals. She was born in Bartow, Florida, but spent most of her childhood in Decatur, Georgia. She attended Mercer Univer- sity (a Baptist College in Macon, GA), where she would meet and marry her husband, Jay Dixon “Dick” Post. They were married for over 52 years before he passed in 2010. They raised their sons, Chris and Robbie, in Bartow. Martha would say that Dick and her sons, along with all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren they’ve given her, are the greatest gifts that God has blessed her with. That said, it is impossible to ignore her many accomplishments, and awe at the levels of success she was able to achieve in so many different areas. First and foremost, Martha is an athlete. In high school, she excelled in basket- ball, making captain of the varsity team her freshman year and ultimately leading her Decatur Bulldogs to the state championship game her senior year. They lost by one point; a result that still gets under the skin of the competitor all these years later. She also picked up tennis while in high school, where she excelled right away, reaching the - fying for the 1979 U.S. Open women’s singles main draw at the age of 40, playing against the world’s best. A ruptured disc sidelined Martha in 1982. During her six-month recovery, she took up art by watching PBS pro- grams. While the best thing most folks could hope for would be passable landscapes, Martha developed an award- winning talent for painting and drawing. Her photorealistic watercolor paintings are known for their attention to detail. Her black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings of buildings are all around Bartow and beyond. Martha has spent decades sharing these immense gifts with the community. She received the Doc Webb Award in 1980 for establishing and building youth tennis programs in Bartow and Lakeland, a prestigious state-level award once bestowed on Hall of Fame player Chris Evert. She shared her love for watercolor through lessons at the Bartow Art Guild. She is a beloved tennis coach with students that still practice the lessons they learned from her years ago.
That was not enough for Martha. She was part of a state champion “Wagonetts” adult softball team that played for the national championship. She took part in a 100-mile “century ride” on her bicycle from Bartow to Clermont and back. She was a local ladies golf cham- pion for multiple years of the Girls Youth Villa Classic in Bartow. She has been an amazing athlete and talented artist her whole life.
Outside of her athletic endeavors, Martha has been sharing her gifts with the congregation of the Bartow ARP Church for decades. She sang in the choir for 30 years and has been enhancing our church calendars with her pen-and-ink sketches since 1996, with her art- work adorning the halls throughout the church. Mar- tha’s painting of our church that is shown here was pur- chased by our late member, Bill Whatley, who turned around and gifted it to the church for all to enjoy. Martha just does what she enjoys and gives it every- thing she has. She continues to serve as an example for her family and community in making the most out of the gifts God has given each of us and doing so with grace and humility, all to His glory.
28 The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
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