Tina Jimmerson was fervent about her Christian witness to women in jail.

The former schoolteacher had her own ideas of how to spread the word of God. She visited jails independently and taught inmates from a lesson plan she thought fit their needs. She provided them with copies of "Promises from God" to guide them once they got out of jail.

Family photo (ENLARGE)

Tina Jimmerson, a career fourth-grade teacher, also taught Sunday school to the mentally challenged.

"She really surprised me with the intensity she had to minister to those girls in jail," said her husband, David Jimmerson, of Fayette County. "It was like she had to do it. She wasn't going to be happy until she could get in there to see them. It was almost like an obsession."

The funeral for Ernestine "Tina" Willis Jimmerson, 73, of Fayette County is 1 p.m. Friday at Carl J. Mowell and Son Funeral Home, Fayetteville. She died of pulmonary fibrosis Wednesday at Healthfield Hospice.

Her message to the jailed women, her husband said, "is that Christ loved them and had a plan for their lives. No matter what they had done, they could be forgiven. Her main mission was to bring them to salvation through Jesus Christ," he said.

At school, Mrs. Jimmerson, a Griffin native and Baylor University graduate, chose to teach fourth grade.

"The children are real attentive at that age and they love their teacher. All that changes as they get older," Mr. Jimmerson said.

At Flat Creek Baptist Church, Mrs. Jimmerson put her teaching experience to work with members of a Sunday school class for mentally challenged adults. Some wanted to learn to read so that they could read the Bible for themselves, and Mrs. Jimmerson became their teacher.

Again, she selected her own lesson plan, a guide that she had used successfully to teach an illiterate man to read, her husband said.

Mrs. Jimmerson attended the special Sunday school class's monthly outings and parties and made a lasting impression. Class members greeted her joyously when they saw her around town.

"They just love seeing her and giving her a hug," said her daughter, Joanna Latham, of Fayetteville. "You can tell what she means to them and that she was invested in them."

When she wasn't spending time at her mountain home, Mrs. Jimmerson shopped for antiques. Her house is filled with antique furniture, including precious family pieces, glassware and bric-a-brac, her daughter said.

"Her car stopped at every garage sale," said her friend Barbara Smith of Sharpsburg. "She would buy anything. If she liked it, she bought it." If she wasn't shopping a garage sale, Mrs. Jimmerson was conducting her own, she said.

The Jimmersons and Smiths enjoyed their card games, hand and foot and a progressive rummy. Rather, three of them enjoyed playing cards while listening to Mrs. Jimmerson.

"Tina was a big talker," Mrs. Smith said. "It was hard to keep her concentrating."

But her chatter reflected the same intensity for caring as her jail ministry and teaching.

"Tina would question you completely. She had to know every little thing. You couldn't just skip from one topic to another, you had to give her every little detail," Mrs. Smith said.

"I knew we had a place in her heart," she said.

Other survivors include a son, David E. "Jimmy" Jimmerson, of Alpharetta; and five grandchildren.