Sutton celebrates 91st birthday with surprise party at church

By Rose Hooper

Members of Jimmie Sutton's adult Sunday school class at Ochre Hill Baptist Church threw a surprise birthday party in honor of her 91st birthday Saturday, Nov. 4.

Sutton's mother, Hattie Moody Tucker, lived to 102 and was healthy up until the last month of her life.

As Sutton, wearing a warm smile and a look of surprise, walked into the Ochre Hill Baptist Church fellowship hall Saturday afternoon (Nov. 4), she exclaimed, "Now, wait a minute, children. It's not Sunday. What are you all doing here?"

When the ladies started singing "Happy Birthday," Sutton realized she just walked into a surprise party given by her Sunday school class.

"'Children,' that's what she calls us," said Pauline Cope with a laugh, "and we're every one of us senior adults."

For most of her life Sutton, widow of Guy Sutton, taught school, beginning at Cane Creek and ending in Waynesville. So whether it's a public school classroom or an adult Sunday school classroom, to her the students are "children."

"When I woke up this morning, I thought, 'Well, I'm 91. Wonder what time of the day I was born," Sutton told her children. "Even with my arthritis, I don't feel 91."

Sitting with her back straight in a regal wooden chair with red velvet padding, Sutton told her class that it felt like a throne and she was "queen for a day."

One of her "children" asked, "Do you feel the Lord led you to teach this class?"

"No," this teacher with the soft white fashionably coiffured hair quickly responded. "Maybe that's why I'm having such a hard time!" The class joined in with her laughter.

"I always felt if there's a job to be done and we're asked to do it, we should do it if we're capable," Sutton said. "Look how God chose David to lead, even with all his sins. It's that blessing of forgiveness that makes it possible."

"She's the best teacher. We all just love her to death; not just our class, but her whole church," said Shirley Mills.

Dixie Blanton called Sutton "keen, articulate, a very special lady; she's been a blessing in all our lives."

"Most of all, she's a very good Christian lady, very compassionate, a friend to all," Norman said of her teacher.

"She's the most faithful member of our church," said Cope.

All her life she's worked in the church, said Sutton, the daughter of a preacher, the late James Milas Tucker.

"I've been with this crowd a long time," she said, surveying her large class. "They sneak around on me, like they did today, but I love everyone of them."

At home, Sutton talks to a classroom of flowers.

"I talked to my flowers long before I read in magazines and book how it's supposed to help," she said. "Now I don't know if it helps them grow, but if one of mine is droopy headed, I'll tell it, 'Straighten up or I'll straighten it up for you.'"

Turning 90 never slowed this teacher down and apparently 91 won't either. She drives herself to a crafts class once a week at Haywood Community College. When she started telling her class about a recent minor mishap with her car, she twisted her words to "dumped my bumper," causing the class to laugh so much she said, "Well, I'm done telling that story!"

Sutton still knits and crochets and loves needlepoint, even though she calls it "tedious." Her needlepoint of The Last Supper graces the front entrance of Ochre Hill Baptist Church.

Sharing a piece of birthday cake with her 91-year-old Sunday school teacher, Blanton called Sutton "the mother of our church."

Back to Archive: 11/09/00.