Only a few months before she celebrated a milestone birthday on May 8, Sue Jenkins stood proudly at her church and sang a favorite solo, “He Touched Me.”
She received a standing ovation.
A similar scene followed a few weeks after her birthday at her favorite community center.
Such accolades were common for a woman who enjoyed life, loved music and touched the Southside community she called home.
Susie Kate “Sue” Hudgens Jenkins of College Park died at Emory University Hospital Midtown on Thursday of complications from a fall on July Fourth. She was 90.
Funeral services are 11 a.m.Tuesday at Shadnor First Baptist Church in Union City. Holly Hill Funeral Home in Fairburn is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Jenkins was a native of Campbell County, which merged with Fulton County in the early 1930s. She was one of eight children of the late Dallas Hudgens and Laura Kate Scarbrough Hudgens. Her brother, the late Scott Hudgens, was widely acclaimed as one of metro Atlanta’s leading developers.
“She loved all of her siblings, but she doted on him,” said Brenda Jenkins, a daughter-in-law. “She was close to him.”
Mrs. Jenkins was a longtime member of Shadnor First Baptist Church, where she had taught Sunday school and was a member of the choir.
Her minister, the Rev. Wendell Burdette of Newnan, said Mrs. Jenkins was “probably one of the most unique people I’ve ever met. If anyone ever met her, they never forgot her. She was like a celebrity.
“At the Valentine’s Day banquet, she’d sing to a man, ‘Let Me Call You Sweetheart.’ Everyone knew her. The day I met her, she sat across a table from me. She smiled at me. I thought, ‘Who is this lady?’ I never knew we’d become great friends.’ ”
Her daughter-in-law said music played a special part in Mrs. Jenkins’ life.
“I can’t imagine people looking up and not seeing her in the choir,” she said.
Nancy Whittenburger, the minister of music at Shadnor, said Mrs. Jenkins was “a joy to be around. She was always smiling and loved to sing.”
Mrs. Jenkins enjoyed country music and bluegrass music at Cedar Grove Community Center in Fairburn as well. “She’d say, ‘We’re having a pickin’ tonight,’” Brenda Jenkins said. “It was a get-together. There’d be guitars and banjos.”
For many years, Mrs. Jenkins worked for Melear’s Barbecue in Union City as a server. She set up tables and “went along to do whatever needed to be done,” her daughter-in-law said. “We called it going on a barbecue party. I helped out, too.”
Mrs. Jenkins “wanted to make people laugh,” her daughter-in-law said, and was good at doing so. “She kept everybody in stitches,” Brenda Jenkins said. “You’d be laughing so hard, you cried. She was a cut-up. She enjoyed life. She enjoyed people.
“When you got her and her husband together, you had something.”
The Rev. Burdette said Mrs. Jenkins told the story often about the day she married Charlie K. Jenkins. They rode a bus and honeymooned at Stone Mountain.
With the help of her grandchildren, Mrs. Jenkins cared for her husband “up to the end,” her daughter-in-law said. Mr. Jenkins died in 2008 at 92.
Survivors include two sons, Kelley Jenkins of Jonesboro and Tony Jenkins of College Park; four grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
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