While a student at the University of Georgia, Jenna Charlton changed her major three times. She just couldn’t narrow down her interests.
But back in Cobb County, her parents joked that she’d had a secret mission. An extra semester meant she was in Athens for another football season to watch her beloved Bulldogs, Pastor Ken Williams said Tuesday afternoon.
Williams was one of two pastors who spoke to the hundreds who filled the sanctuary and overflowed to a hallway at West Cobb Church to honor Jenna Charlton Wall, a dedicated teacher who considered her two sons her greatest accomplishment. Wall, who taught kindergarten at Kemp Elementary School in Powder Springs, was shot to death last week, and her mother-in-law was charged with murder. She was 35.
While the circumstances of Wall’s death shocked her community, there was no discussion of the news headlines during the funeral. Her estranged husband — son of the woman who is accused of shooting Wall last week — did not attend the service. Elizabeth Wall, 63, remains in the Cobb County Jail.
At Tuesday service, family, friends, colleagues and former students nodded quietly and wiped away tears while hearing stories of how Wall lived and her devotion to helping others.
“She came out of the womb helping people,” Williams said.
Raised in west Cobb, Wall was an athlete and honor student at Harrison High School, where she was also the yearbook editor and involved with student government. She graduated from UGA with a degree in sociology and psychology and worked in sales and management for several years. But it was her second career that she found much more fulfilling.
After returning to Mercer University to earn a teaching certificate, Wall taught at two Cobb elementary schools before moving to Kemp. For Wall, teaching was another way to serve her community, her colleagues said.
In 2004, she married Jerrod Wall, the couple had two son, Maddox and Mason. Her first son was born in July, and that fall, he attended his first Georgia football game, Williams said during the funeral.
Through West Ridge Church in Dallas, Wall was involved with a program called Blue Skies, which offers a camp experience for families afflicted by pediatric cancer. She and her family attended the church for about 10 years, according to an associate pastor.
But last fall, Wall filed for divorce from her husband, and at the time of her death, it had not been finalized. Wall made a difficult decision to find another church for herself and her boys, and the three began attending West Cobb Church, pastors said Tuesday. Wall’s sons did not attend their mother’s funeral.
In closing, Pastor Dave Mayo shared a simple song that Wall had taught her boys and asked those in attendance to repeat the lines. Though a simple, childhood song, it was a motto Wall lived by, Mayo said.
“Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong.”
A private interment was planned for Wall.
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