Irma Kohn Bellinger, 92, was born February 20, 1925 in Columbia, South Carolina. She was the youngest of three children born to the late Reverend Charlie J. Kohn and Leila Jones Kohn. On Thursday, December 28, 2017, she was called to eternal rest from National Health Care Center (NHC) of Columbia.

Irma and her siblings grew up in the historic Waverly section of the city. Her formative years as an elementary student were spent at Waverly Elementary School, which was followed by her matriculation at the historic Booker T. Washington High School as a member of the class of 1941. She and her classmates shared many memorable class reunions over the years until her health declined.

Several years after graduating from Booker T. Washington and a short stint at Benedict College, she left Columbia for Jamaica, New York. She and her husband of sixty-two years, (the late) Theodore Eugene Bellinger, reared their three children: a daughter Yvette, and two sons, Duane and Gregory, who all preceded her in death.

During her long years of living in Jamaica, New York, Mrs. Bellinger proudly worked in the culinary field and served as a caterer with several companies for approximately twenty-one years. However, she took the most pride in her role as a homemaker, who was always available for her children as they arrived home from school each day to a hot dinner, and later for her grandchildren while they were in New York.

Following the death of her husband, “Gene”, in 1989, she moved back to Columbia to be with her beloved sister, LaVerne Kohn Neal, and big brother, Lenzo C. Kohn, Sr. She also rekindled some of her relationships with neighborhood friends and classmates who she enjoyed talking and getting together with regularly as she was a talker. She could tell a good story about any past event as well as be the “life of the party” or tell some hilarious jokes that would leave a listening ear in stitches.

Rejoicing in her precious memories after 92 years on this journey are her grandchildren: Kendra Jean Brown Briscoe (Derek) of Richmond, Virginia, Adrian Bellinger (Tanika) of Gloucester, Virginia, and Jerome Bellinger (Arleckoa) of Columbia, South Carolina; son-in-law, Jesse Brown of Stone Mountain, Georgia; thirteen great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews (the Bellingers, Kohns, and Neals), brothers- and sisters-in-law across the country, other relatives, and friends, all of whom will miss her dearly.