Mary Sue Rutledge Nix

The friends and family of Mary Sue Rutledge Nix are enjoying remembering a woman of wit, wisdom and warm hospitality. Long before Starbucks, she dispensed coffee and counsel at her kitchen table. She valued people and saw them not just for who they were, but who they wanted to be. She was a legendary hostess, serving the churches pastored by her husband in Mississippi, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia and Texas. She loved to entertain, from church-wide events to welcoming denominational dignitaries to her home, to reading “The Little Red Hen” over and over again to Michael, Eric and Jenny Root from the backseat of her sister Polly’s Fleetwood Cadillac. If you come across a church cookbook and a recipe has her name next to it, make it, especially if it is the recipe for Susie’s Sugar Pie…a recipe she wrangled from her sister Marge and renamed for better alliteration. Her grandchildren enjoyed going to her house because she loved feeding them and playing games with them. One of the first words they learned to spell was “B-I-N-G-O” before graduating to SCRABBLE and MONOPOLY. Not only an avid game player, she kept numerous dictionaries close at hand because she couldn’t stand leaving the crossword puzzle unfinished. Also as a grammarian, she couldn’t abide grammatical errors, so would privately correct your written and oral mistakes. Over the years she worked for the Atomic Energy Commission in Tennessee, Ford Motor Company in Kansas City, MO, the shipyard in Pascagoula, MS, and RR Donnelly & Company in Chicago, IL. She was born in Walker County to H.M. and Mary Francis Jackson Rutledge on June 29, 1926. She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Roy T. Nix, their two children Suzanne Nix Martin of Oklahoma City, OK, and R.J. Nix of Birmingham, AL, and two foster sons, Gary Wheeler of Houston, TX and Jerry Wheeler of Colorado Springs, CO. In addition, she leaves behind four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She is also survived by one sister, Marjorie Hancock of Daphne, Alabama. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Pauline Marques and her brother Fred Rutledge. Funeral services will be Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. at Bessemer Brown Service Funeral Home with burial at Cedar Hill Cemetery. Rev. Jake Smith will be officiating. The family will receive friends at the funeral home from 9:00 a.m. until service time.

Mary Sue Rutledge Nix

February 15, 2015