Sue Gordin McMurtry's Obituary
Sue Gordin McMurtry passed away peacefully, during the night of April 17, 2018 in Franklin, TN surrounded by family at the age of 95. She was born on September 17, 1922 in Moorhead, Mississippi the fourth daughter to the late Benjamin Ward Gordin and Anna Goff Gordin. Her late dear sisters were Polly Anna Burkle, Mary Ward Whatley, and Carolyn Rose. She grew up in Oakland, MS where she attended school later graduating from Northwest Mississippi Junior College in Senatobia in 1940. Later she taught school in Mississippi eventually moving to Memphis to accept a position with the Sanders Clinic as a medical technologist. One of her colleagues, a cousin to Arthur McMurtry introduced the two and they were married for 71 years. Sue was a strong woman, ahead of her time in many ways. She was a career woman long before it was the norm for a woman to work outside the home. She had a strong work ethic at school and at home. She never missed work nor would she let her children miss a day of school. Another remarkable achievement, Sue went back to Memphis State to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Education while working full time and managing four teenagers. Sue taught the second grade in the Memphis City Schools for thirty years and was one of the first to volunteer to teach in an all-black school. Her chief regrets when she moved to Nashville were not running into her former students and missing her friends from Raleigh Presbyterian Church and the Ellen Davies Garden Club. She was the last of her generation in her family which included her four children, eleven grandchildren and twenty-three great grandchildren not to mention the many nieces and nephews. She will be greatly missed by her four children Anita M. Dempsey (Charles Thomas) Brentwood, TN; Mary M. Cochran, (Terry) Collierville, TN; Arthur D. McMurtry, Jr., Panama City, Fl; B. Gordin McMurtry (Lisa) Memphis, TN and her nieces Sandra W. Miller, Anna B. Turner, and Barbara B. Hart and two nephews James Z Whatley and William Rose. The family will receive friends and relatives on Sunday, April 22nd from 12pm until the time of service at 1pm at Memorial Park Funeral Home, 5668 Poplar Avenue in Memphis.
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