Dalton, Georgia - Mrs. Rachel Ann Dooley Whaley, age 84, of Dalton, passed away Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at her home.

A lifelong resident of Whitfield County, Rachel grew up in the Tilton community and graduated in 1959 from Valley Point High School, where she served as a manager for the girls basketball team. Rachel attended secretarial school in Atlanta and then went to work at Cabin Crafts in Dalton. She married Wendell Whaley in 1961, and they moved to the Eastside community, where she lived in the same house for the next 56 years and raised two children.

In her later years, she began working as a substitute teacher at Eastbrook Middle School and Southeast Whitfield High School. She also enjoyed traveling with the family's drag racing team and accompanying her mother on senior citizen tours.

Rachel was preceded in death by her husband, Wendell; father and mother, Keith and Maggie Dooley; father-in-law and mother-in-law, Lucius and Grace Whaley; sister-in-law, Angela Whaley; and brother-in-law, James Whaley.

She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Kevin and Donna Whaley; daughter and son-in-law, Kara and Dan Oddy; grandchildren, Parker Whaley, Grace Oddy and Matthew Oddy; brother-in-law, Alvin Whaley; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Sid and Sandra Derrick; nieces, Cyndi Hefner, September Truelove and Lindsey Derrick; and nephew, Ryan Whaley.

The family will receive friends at the Pleasant Grove Chapel of Julian Peeples Funeral Home on Tuesday, May 6 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. The funeral service will be held in the funeral home's chapel at 1 p.m. with pastor Bruce Beach presiding, followed by burial at Dawn Rest Cemetery.

Serving as pall bearers are Mark Lentych, Mark Truelove, Gary Hefner, Aaron Truelove, Richard Adams, Robby Chase and Colt Ridley.