Thelma Catterton Jenness

Sarah Thelma Catterton Jenness passed away on Saturday, August 4, 2012 attended by Tidewater Hospice at Hawthorne Inn Assisted Living at Hilton Head Island surrounded by loving family.We proudly celebrated her 100th birthday with a lively celebration of life on the 3rd of July with 25 friends and all of her children and grand children. Her great grand daughter shares her birthday and her name, a source of great pride for her.A woman clearly ahead of her time: serving her community for forty odd years as Deputy Probate Judge of Jasper County long before it became commonplace for women to work outside the home. She was known as the go-to person for anyone needing help with probating a will, finding records of marriages, deaths etc. even performing marriage ceremonies in the absence of the Probate Judge.During the years approaching and during WWII, in need of employment for herself and to assist her single mother and 6 younger siblings, she moved alone from their home in Ridgeland to Charleston, SC and found a job in the Quartermasters office at Fort Moultrie. Soon other sisters followed, finding jobs with the postal service and at the Citadel, etc. Their adventures in Charleston are a matter of family legend. She was an indispensable help to her mother in the rearing of a large family in very difficult financial and political times.Her greatest source of pride was her daughters Sandrae Jenness McCorkle and Kathryne Jenness Black who served the schools of SC and GA for a combined 70 years as teachers and administrators. Her focus changed in later years to doting on her grandchildren.Throughout her life she was a member of the Ridgeland Baptist Church, untiring in her service to youth and adults. She was president of both local - the Savannah River Baptist Assoc WMU and Girls Auxiliary Director.Preceded in death by parents Rozella Cook Catterton and William Henry Catterton, her husband of 35 yrs Sanders Jenness; brothers Clarence Catterton and Marvin Catterton and son-in-law Robert L. McCorkle, Jr.She is survived by her daughters, Sandrae Jenness McCorkle of Savannah and Kathryne Jenness Black (B.Otis Black) of Okatie; her sisters; Carrie C. Getsinger and Eunice C. Funderburk both of Columbia, SC, Florrie C. Nettles of Knoxville, TN, and Jeannette C. Morse of Orlando, FL; her grandchildren; Sanders Jenness Black, Katherine Jennifer Kuns of Little Rock, AR, Jocelyn Michael Black of Hilton Head Island, Meredith McCorkle of Savannah, Robert L. McCorkle, III of Savannah and three great grandchildren.Memorial Services will be held at 11:00 am, Friday, August 10, 2012 at Sauls Funeral Home, 90 Simmonsville Rd., Bluffton with burial in the Ridgeland Cemetery, Ridgeland, SC. The family will receive friends beginning at 10:00 am prior to the service at the funeral home.