May 7, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
A good journey! That’s how one of DeKalb County’s most beloved residents, Sue Puckett-Jernigan, describes her life.
It has also been a busy and exciting life from her 12 years as a member of the Board of Education, 36 years as an attorney (the first female lawyer in DeKalb County), to her volunteer work in organizations such as Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County and the DeKalb Coalition for Humane Treatment of Animals. In addition, she has been deeply involved in missions and other activities for her church. Through it all, Jernigan has been a dedicated and loyal public servant.
Although still active, Jernigan has decided to take things a little slower, recently retiring from the legal profession after serving more than three decades as one of the leading attorneys in Smithville.
“I practiced law 36 years exactly, and I officially retired October 8, 2020. I had talked about it before my husband passed away eleven years ago because he was not in good health, and we wanted to travel some. But I was so glad I had not retired at that time. It was a different world for me to go to work and working helped my grief, so I worked ten more years after that. I didn’t know it was going to be so hard to retire. It took a lot of work, and I still have some things hanging a little bit,” said Jernigan.
Even as a child, Jernigan thought she might like to one day become a lawyer.
Born on Indian Creek in rural DeKalb County to William Hubert Nixon and Winnie Pearl Turner Nixon, Jernigan said she became interested in the law profession at an early age when her father went to see an attorney about how their family would be affected by the soon-to-be-built Center Hill Dam.
“Before Center Hill Dam came we owned property on Indian Creek, and my daddy went to see Bob Turner, and I went with him. I was fascinated with the legal aspect. I was about 11 years old at the time. Later when I was in high school I toyed with becoming a doctor and talked to Mr. Winfred Knowles about it. He was one my teachers, and his son was a doctor. I kept that idea, but instead I got married right out of high school and didn’t go to college. Life changes when you fall in love, and it was a little bit later when I (again) really fell in love with the law,” said Jernigan.
Before graduating high school, one of her teachers, Ophalene Love, arranged for Jernigan to job shadow for Sam Love, who was county clerk at the time. That experience led to her first part-time job.
“In high school we had shorthand and typing that I took for two years, and Ms Love was the teacher. I had excelled in both of those subjects, and she wanted to place us during the last semester of high school in some of the businesses to work. It was what we call job shadowing today. She sent me to the courthouse to see Mr. Love, who was her brother-in-law. From there Mr. Love wanted me to work part time for him so I started working in the afternoons and on Saturdays. When I graduated from high school, my parents saw I wasn’t going to college right away, so my mom got me a job at the shirt factory, and I was still working for Sam Love on Saturdays. It didn’t take me too long to know that was not what I wanted to do the rest of my life. I think I worked at the shirt factory about nine months. During that time Sam decided he was not going to run for re-election as clerk. He asked me to come and work full time for him since he wanted to spend more time working in the hardware store owned by him and his brother located on the corner where DeKalb Title is today, so I did,” said Jernigan.
It wasn’t long until Jernigan’s next employment opportunity came calling. One that would change her life.
“Mr. Love and McAllen Foutch were good friends. Mr. Foutch was a well known attorney in town at the time, and Sam had already told me that Mr. Foutch was going to need a secretary and that he would say something to him about me. One day Mr. Foutch came and asked if I wanted to work for him. I said ‘yes.’ I remained with Mr. Foutch from 1953 until I became an attorney in 1984. The law firm at that time was known as Foutch, Conger and Corley.
Being exposed to the legal profession again renewed Jernigan’s interest in pursuing it as a career, and in September, 1977, at the age of 42, she enrolled at UT Nashville.
“I had never been to college, but I wanted to become a lawyer and needed a college degree. I went to school four nights a week and sometimes on Saturdays and earned a degree in business administration. That led to my entry in law school at the YMCA school in Nashville,” said Jernigan.
Jernigan holds the distinction of being the first female attorney in DeKalb County, and she remembered how being a woman perhaps helped get her first case.
“The first week I practiced I got a call from the jail and he (inmate) said, ‘I want that new woman lawyer to be my attorney.’ He hired me and actually paid me,” said Jernigan.
During those years of her association with Foutch, Jernigan had the privilege of working with several other attorneys including Frank Buck, George LeFevre, Vester Parsley, Hilton Conger, and Mike Corley, before later opening her own office. For over the last 20 years Jernigan’s niece, Tecia, also an attorney, has worked with her. Tecia took over the practice after Jernigan’s retirement last fall.
While working to further her career, Jernigan became active in her son Jason’s high school band boosters’ club and that interest led to her decision to seek a position on the Board of Education.
“The Board of Education was doing zero for the band at that time. They (boosters) had to put gas in the bus that traveled to the ball games, pay the driver and all that. I didn’t like that, among other things. I remember it was a cold, rainy day in December, 1975, when my dear friend, Dr. Larry Puckett, who was a member of the school board, approached me about becoming a candidate for the school board and encouraged me to run,” she said. She stated that he spoiled her Christmas that year because she was battling the decision of whether to become a candidate but decided to run.
Jernigan’s first entry into politics was successful, and she went on to serve two terms or twelve years on the Board of Education representing the third district. During much of that time, Jernigan served as Chairman of the Board.
After she became a member, Jernigan’s concern about the band program was quickly addressed, among other issues.
“The high school had no landscaping whatsoever. That was one of my first projects. I worked with James Cantrell (local nurseryman and high school teacher) and others on that,” she said.
“Later I took on the project of fixing up the bathrooms at the high school. I kept telling the board the restrooms needed attention so they funded new commodes, among other items. I wallpapered the girl’s bathroom myself, bought a live plant, and bought a bench to put outside. I even put up a Graffiti board and placed a letter on it admonishing the students to keep the bathrooms neat and clean,” said Jernigan.
Through her encouragement, DCHS became the first school in the county to become accredited.
Jernigan also sponsored implementing the parent-teacher conferences; championed the development of school board policies; and oversaw expansion of the school system’s art and music programs and formation of the alternative school. Jernigan also requested the board to join the Tennessee School Boards Association. She held several positions with TSBA and later became its president, as well as member of the Interim Commission on Education and Federal Relations Network.
Among the state issues Jernigan lobbied for were appointed school superintendents, which became a reality in the 1990’s, and for the school boards to have fiscal authority (taxing authority), something that has not yet become law.
After she left the school board, Jernigan took on the role of its attorney for several years.
One thing she takes pride in is the fact that during her son’s eight years in the marching band, she only missed two performances, one due to a death and the other due to being sick. She stated she drove one night after attending classes from Nashville to Knoxville in order to be there the next morning for the performance.
Jernigan’s passion for youth, animals, and the less fortunate has also given her an outlet to support and become involved in several civic organizations over the years, including Lighthouse Christian Camp, Haven of Hope, Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County, and the DeKalb Animal Coalition, the latter two of which she is a charter board member.
Although she loves all animals, Jernigan’s favorite is English bulldogs.
“We always had animals on the farm, but one day when I was a little girl I saw a picture of Winston Churchill on the front page of the Tennessean newspaper with his bulldog and knew someday I had to have one. However, it wasn’t until 1977 that I got my first bulldog and named him Winston. Every year I send out Christmas cards with a picture of my dogs with, in the past, family, and now just me. Oftentimes when I meet someone they will ask about my dogs before (asking about) me. Once, while I was acting as city judge in Alexandria I had to try a dog case. I think I ruled for the dog,” said Jernigan.
Religion has also been a very important part of Jernigan’s life. Since her childhood, she has been an active member of the Indian Creek Baptist Church, where she has led teaching and mission programs and served as a role model to others, especially the youth.
“My faith means a lot to me,” she said. “I was raised in church and accepted Christ one day before I turned 11 years old during the last revival held there before the dam came and we had to relocate the church, being baptized a short time later in Indian Creek.”
“Over the years I have taught Sunday School at different age levels and driven the van hauling kids to church,” she continued. “I was instrumental in organizing our Women’s Missionary Union, Girls in Action, Mission Friends, and, later, Acteens. I led 12 Acteens Activator mission trips to various parts of the United States. I was Vacation Bible School director for 15 years. We even got a plaque from the Tennessee Baptist Convention for our outstanding Bible School in a rural area. Every year I tried to do a theme-related kick-off, and I remember one time we brought in camels. Other times we had monkeys, birds, horses and buggies and other related themes. For a time I was on the Jobs Corps Board for the Tennessee Baptist Convention and later spent eight years going to halfway houses to do a devotional and session with them once a week. I have always enjoyed it. I just believe these kinds of programs can make a difference in the lives of people, especially children”.
“It really made me think after one of my former Acteens had died, and her friend came to the funeral, who I had not seen in years. She came up to me and said, ‘I just want to tell you what an influence you had on my life and that I am the woman I am today because of Acteens.’ That touched me,” said Jernigan.
In recent years, Jernigan has been the Area Site Coordinator for “Operation Christmas Child,” a ministry to collect shoeboxes filled with gifts to send to less fortunate children around the world. She and her husband have fostered several children and hosted a foreign exchange student from South Korea, with whom she still has contact.
Asked how she would like to be remembered, Jernigan said she had never given it much thought but read from something she had seen which seemed to fit her.
“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”
“It’s been a good journey. I have enjoyed it,” she said.