Tamara Jean Rogers, 81, of Connelly Springs, passed away on Tuesday July 14, 2026, at Catawba Valley Medical Center, after battling cancer for nearly two decades, but succumbed to an unrelated health crisis.

Mrs. Rogers was born May 15, 1945, in Burke County, a daughter of the late Talmadge and Lucille Childers Smith. She was a member of Hildebran First Baptist Church and retired from Sherrill Furniture as a cloth cutter. Tamara was a collector of creatures (2 legged and 4 legged) and never met a stranger. She loved to help others, in the food ministries of her church, children in need and feeding the homeless. She always had a story to tell and loved working in her yard with her flowers. She loved her family deeply and kept us close. Food was her love language, and she shared that love with her grandchildren, that will carry on and on. She never gave up no matter what she was facing, including being the longest living survivor of Renal Cell Carcinoma.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by two brothers, Jimmy Melton Smith and Darrell Smith.

Those left to cherish her memory are her husband, Gordon Rogers of the home, two daughters, Susan Guthrie McGee and husband Robert of Icard and Patti Guthrie and her partner, Betty Giles of Morganton. Also surviving are the apples of her eye her, grandchildren, Dr. Brandy Chapman and husband Bruce Holstien of Greenville, SC and Ashley McLendon and husband Christian of Hickory, Robbie McGee and wife Abbey of Connelly Springs, great-grandchildren, Gray, Jackson, Brady, Mac and Della, McLendon of Hickory, Collins and Bennett McGee of Connelly Springs and adopted granddaughter in love, Mariya Arney and her daughter, Zhiva.

Funeral Services for Tamara Rogers will be held at 5:00 P.M. Friday July 17, 2026 in the Chapel of Heritage Funeral Service, Valdese, with Rev. Rocky McLendon officiating. Interment will follow in the Hildebran First Baptist Church Cemetery.

The family will receive friends from 4:00 P.M. until 5:00 P.M. Friday at Heritage Funeral Service, Valdese.

Memorials may be made to any of the charities Mrs. Rogers was involved in.

An online obituary and guestbook is available at www.heritagefuneralservices.com.