Sam Grogan was an expert at building things. He went from a long career teaching building construction to building fires in barbecue pits that produced award-winning fare.
But one of the most important things he built was a lifelong companionship with his wife, Diane. The Grogans were both retired educators in Clayton County schools, and they both fell in love with barbecue.
“Some couples like to do their own thing, but it wasn’t like that for them,” said Myron Mixon, a celebrity chef and competitive barbecue legend who became friends with the couple when they enrolled in his cooking class. “What one did the other one wanted to do.”
Known as the Jus-Fer-Fun Competition Crew, the duo loved the social aspect of barbecue cooking contests. “The barbecue community became their other family,” said his daughter Jennifer Deason of Milledgeville. “And the barbecue community loved them as much as we did.”
Life as he knew it changed for Mr. Grogan in August when he lost his wife to cancer. “She meant everything to him,” said daughter Jamie Steinmeyer, also of Milledgeville. “He was lost without her.”
Less than six weeks after the death of his chief chef and companion of 45 years, Mr. Grogan competed in what would be his first and last barbecue cookoff without her.
“He felt like he wanted to come out and cook again,” said Gowan Fenley, a friend and team manager of Johnny Mitchell’s Smokehouse Championship Cooking Team LLC in Euharlee. “He seemed to be in good spirits, but you could tell it was a very emotional thing for him.”
Samuel Marshall Grogan Jr. of McDonough, affectionately known as “Poppa Sam,” died Sept. 29 from a heart attack after participating in a cooking contest in Rome, Ga. He was 64. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Haisten Funeral Home, which is also in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Grogan, known for his sense of humor and generous spirit, will be remembered for having an unwavering commitment to his family and friends. Mr. Mixon said he “wished he could’ve been more like him” and will miss how he was “always carrying on and telling jokes.”
Mrs. Deason said her father loved to have a good time. “He always said his girls got their brains and looks from their mom and the will to party from their dad,” she said. And when his wife was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Mr. Grogan learned how to cook meals that she could eat. “He took care of her until death did them part,” she said.
His children are comforted by the fact that their parents won’t have to spend another day apart. “As much as we hurt because he’s gone, his heart was just so broken without Momma,” Mrs. Steinmeyer said.
“Six weeks ago we were a family of five, and now we’re a family of three,” Mrs. Deason said. “They say he died of a heart attack, but we say he died of a broken heart.”
Mr. Grogan is also survived by another daughter, Stephanie Garcha of Atlanta; his mother, Lois Grogan of Trion, Ga.; a sister, Hilda Hood of Lafayette, Ga.; and six grandchildren.
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