Eva Grey Hutchins

Eva Grey Hutchins died peacefully in Atlanta, Georgia on July 30, 2023, at the age of 90. She was born the second of five daughters to Charles Elmer and Helen Lyon Martin in Harrisonburg, VA on September 14, 1932. She graduated high school in Taneytown, MD in 1948. As a teenager, she and her four sisters performed as a quintet known as the Martin Sisters and delighted local audiences. After high school, she went to work as a line worker at the local rubber factory. She then took a job as a typist at Fort Detrick, MD. In 1950, at age 18, she moved to Baltimore and enrolled in Peabody Conservatory, a noted performing arts school, now known as Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University. Supporting herself by working at a local five and dime for 40 cents per hour, she attended Peabody for one year. She then returned to Fort Detrick, working as a secretary in the Engineering Division as part of the U.S. Army’s top secret biological warfare project. It was there, in 1952, she met the love of her life, Charles Hutchins. They were married June 27, 1953, with her singing “I Love You Truly” as she walked down the aisle. The couple then attended Furman University, where part of her education was funded by an unused football scholarship made available to her by the Furman Head Basketball Coach and Athletic Director, Lyles Alley, for whom she worked. When funds ran short, and the priority was Charles’s education, Coach Alley helped Eva Grey because he recognized her keen intellect and love of learning. Charles received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957, and Eva Grey once again put her education on hold, as the couple moved to Tallahassee, FL for Charles to pursue a Masters Degree. After Charles’s graduation from Florida State, the couple moved to Greeneville, TN, where Charles was employed by Holston United Methodist Home for Children. All three of the couple’s children were born in the 1960’s in East Tennessee.

Eva Grey was immensely talented. She was a renowned singer for decades, a pianist, an often-noted ridiculously fast typist, a persnickety grammarian, a gardner with the greenest of thumbs, a historian, an author of two books, and a prolific ghost writer. She ultimately completed her formal education by earning a Bachelor in Music in 1982 from Columbia College in Columbia, SC. She served as Choir Director at Lebanon United Methodist Church in Eastover, SC for 14 years, and then, after she and Charles moved back to Greeneville, TN in the mid-1990s, she served as Choir Director at Christ United Methodist Church for more than a decade, well into her 80’s. But, of all her many gifts, it was her life as a wife and mother that she cherished most. Her main life goals were to be the best wife and mother that she could possibly be, and in both of these roles, she truly excelled. She supported and worked alongside her husband faithfully and without envy for his entire career in ministry, as the two of them truly enjoyed the rare “total marriage” for just shy of 69 years. And she loved and cherished her children, and children of many other mothers, like few mothers do. She was gentle, kind, patient and forgiving. She was the constant encourager and the biggest and most loyal fan. When it came to children, especially her own, she was a natural leader, a tireless advocate and a fierce defender.

She was a life-long lover and follower of Jesus Christ, a devoted wife, a nearly perfect mother, a faithful and loyal sister and friend, and, with her husband, a model steward and prolific giver. She was always cheerful, had the most charming smile, and she was loved and admired by many, yet she remained a humble servant all of her days. Her husband, children and grandchildren all adored her. Mrs. Hutchins is survived by her daughter Camille Hutchins Broom and son-in-law Mike Broom, her son John Hutchins and daughter-in-law Lisa Matrundola, Rita and Jim Sexton and Rita’s children, Heather, Holly, Brandon and Synthia, her grandchildren Cassie Snodgrass and her husband Alex, Jack Hutchins, Anna Hutchins, Kelli Shealy and her husband Collin, Russell Tanner and his husband Michael Mascolo, Graham Humphreys, and Marisa Humphreys, her great-grandchildren, Connor Shealy, Caleb Shealy and Lilly Trotter, her sisters Pat Fogle and Shirley Bonfiglio and her husband Nace, and her brother-in-law George Hutchins and his wife Barbara. Her husband, Charles, pre-deceased her in 2022 and her first son and second child, Ralph Hutchins, pre-deceased her in 2016.

A memorial service will occur on Sunday, September 3, 2023 at 3:00 p.m., at H.M. Patterson & Son-Oglethorpe Hill Chapel, 4550 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30319. A reception will be held immediately following at the home of John Hutchins and Lisa Matrundola, 2115 Howell Mill Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30318. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be given to the Ralph Edwin Hutchins Scholarship Fund at Holston United Methodist Home for Children, the Charles and Eva Grey Hutchins Legacy Fund at Holston United Methodist Home for Children, the Charles A. Hutchins Fund at Epworth United Methodist Children’s Home, or the Charles and Eva Grey Hutchins Scholarship Fund at Africa University.