Louisa Warnell Neal

The family of Louisa Warnell Neal wishes to express their profound gratitude to the staff of Highland Hills Village for their extremely professional and compassionate care for Warnell these past three years. A special note of gratitude is due to Khadiiah, Jennifer, Tarra, and Joyce Ann who spent additional hours day and night with Warnell tenderly filling Warnell's final days with dignity, joy, and love. On the nineteenth of December, they celebrated with Warnell as she observed her eighty-eighth birthday. Warnell passed away peacefully on the twenty-seventh day of December 2025.
Prior to transitioning to Highland Hills, Warnell was a happy member of the Anna's Walk community, where she was welcomed as a neighbor and friend. She came to Athens from Wilmington, Delaware, to live closer to family after a thirty-five-year career as an Analytical Research Chemist with the DuPont de Nemours Corporation.
She earned her M.A. in Analytical Chemistry from Duke University. Prior to that, she earned her B.A. in Chemistry from Agnes Scott College, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest academic honor society. Warnell was a 1956 graduate of Moultrie High School, her childhood hometown, having been born in her parents' home in 1937.
In her youth, Warnell was an accomplished tennis player, enjoyed sailing, and travelled extensively. Perhaps her greatest passion, outside of her love for family and friends, was for photography, an avocation at which she excelled. She had a wry sense of humor, and an easy, soft-spoken manner that endeared her to each life that she touched.
Warnell is survived by her brother, Ray Neal (Peggy) (Oconee County), niece Carol Jeanne Hood (Coleman) (Oconee County), nephew Rabun Neal (Kay) (Greensboro), niece Dianne Thomas (Mark) (Oconee County), nine great-nieces/nephew, and thirteen great-great nieces/nephews. Preceding her in death were her parents, Rabun and Hazel Neal, two sisters, Carol Neal and Anna Neal Draffin, and nephew, Brooks Burgess (Jan).
A graveside service will be held at a later date at the family cemetery in Moultrie, GA.