Susie M. Kittrell

For 94 years, Susie M. Kittrell lived with strength of spirit, clarity of mind, and a presence you didn't forget. She lived on her own terms, spoke in her own voice, and never asked the world's permission to be herself.

Born June 10, 1932, in Oxford, North Carolina, to the late Susie Stovall Kittrell and Otis Kittrell, Susie left North Carolina as a young woman for New Jersey in pursuit of greater opportunity. There she built a long career in nursing, earning her certifications and licenses while raising her family, and creating a life that let her provide for the people she loved.

She wanted more for her children than what they could already see, and she believed education, independence, and self-respect were how you got it. Her instructions were memorable: "Never settle. Reach for the stars. And never take any wooden nickels." She taught her children to think for themselves and stand on their own feet, and she didn't just tell them that. She showed them, year after year.

Susie retired at 62 and returned to the Oxford area to be near her mother. She had worked long enough to know the value of time and was wise enough to claim it for herself. The next three decades were hers, and she made them count, planting gardens season after season, tending her yard, and cutting her own grass with a push mower well into her later years and spending time with her family. When the work was done, she could often be found on her back patio, taking in the home and land she had worked so many years to enjoy.

Her children and grandchildren filled that home for every holiday, fed by a cook whose reputation preceded her. There was always something homemade waiting when family walked in. Grandchildren learned at her side in the kitchen, and three generations once made a day of it at the wharf in Washington, D.C., picking out fresh seafood to bring home and cook together. Her table fed people. It also kept them close.

She believed in making full use of the life she'd been given, and she pushed her family to do the same. Her travels took her to Canada, Arizona, and Texas, and on a 14-day journey through Israel and the Holy Land. Countless other trips, near and far, came through her local churches, where she met people who became lifelong friends.

And when a son needed a home of his own, she gave him land to build it on. That was Susie: belief followed by action, and the expectation that you would walk the path she helped clear for you. It wasn't a single act of generosity, it was how she loved all of her children, in ways big and small, tangible and lasting. She didn't just wish good things for her family. She made them real.

Faith ran through her days. She read her Bible faithfully, quoted Scripture from memory, kept gospel music in the house, and wrote down prayers to give to others. When her children came to her with a problem, her advice usually came back to the same thing: trust God, depend on Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit lead. She carried the 23rd Psalm the way some people carry a name “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

She could read a person or a room in an instant, and she never believed the truth needed softening before it was handed to you. With Susie, you always knew where you stood. As one loved one put it, she was "not for the weak." But beneath that directness was a woman who listened hard, remembered everything, and protected her own fiercely. Even at the end, with others caring for her, she was still asking about them ,"Take care of yourself," she'd say, right up until she couldn't.

Susie was preceded in death by her former husband, James Johnson, and her sons James Johnson Jr., Joseph Johnson, Paul Johnson, Milton Johnson, and Samuel Kittrell. As Samuel's mother, she carried the distinction of Gold Star Mother from his service during the Vietnam era. She buried five sons and a former husband and still found reasons to travel, laugh, and hold court in her own kitchen. That was its own kind of strength.

She leaves to cherish her memory her children, Gloria Wilmer; Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Walker and her husband, Derell Walker; Michael Johnson and his wife, Dorothy Johnson; Arnold Johnson and his wife, Thessie Johnson; and Antoinette Nauflett and her husband, Derrick Nauflett; her grandchildren, Albert Wilmer, Immanuel Shufford, Sarai Walker, Desiree Johnson, Steven Johnson, Christopher Johnson, Chassidy Johnson, Jeremy Johnson, Briana Uket, Patrick Uket, Taylor Nauflett, Sydney Nauflett, Denise Wilmer, and Jeannie Wilmer; along with many other grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends whose lives she made richer just by being in them.

Ninety-four years is a long time to hold onto your own voice. Susie Kittrell never lost hers and it will keep speaking through the people she raised, the paths she cleared for them, and the standard she set for what it means to live without apology.