Leonora Jacqueline Hall Hawkins, age 85, of White, Georgia, passed away on December 4 of 2022. Her last breath was calmly taken in the most perfect of settings that could be asked of our Lord. She died in her sleep, in her own home, on a beautiful Sunday morning, in a good and peaceful neighborhood in America, having lived her adulthood in the most prosperous times in all of history.
Jacque was born in Cottondale, Florida on March 11, 1937 to the late Henry Edgar Hall, Sr. (direct descendant of Lyman Hall, one of the three Georgians whose signature will be found on The Declaration of Independence) and Annie Lenora Florence Hall (daughter of a county judge).
In early childhood, Jacque was reared in a semi-rural setting near Port St. Joe, Florida. She often related exciting stories of enemy submarines which would surface offshore during World War II. It was along the coastline of the Florida Panhandle where she developed a strong love of nature, and an appreciation for all of its beauties and hazards. Stingrays, sharks, jellyfish, Florida panthers, sunburn, and cuts from oyster shells were all part of her childhood.
Later, as an outdoorswoman and young mother, she spent countless days teaching her sons, Rick and Roger, to fish, camp, hunt, and harvest prehistoric artifacts from the swamps and coasts of north Florida and the wooded farmlands of South Georgia.
As a young woman, Jacque graduated from the respected Florida High School in Tallahassee, and then attended Florida State University, where she served as secretary to the notable President Doak Campbell, for whom the present-day FSU stadium is named.
While single in her early twenties, she worked hard as a Level-5 Stenographer for the Florida Institute For The Blind, and for various other firms. She was a very active member of Parkway Baptist Church of Tallahassee, where she was a pianist, a choir member and soloist, and helped host many social events. In a university town during the turbulent 1960s, Jacque remained steadfast and morally correct; she was the perfect portrait of a proper young woman.
It was during this time that she met her husband-to-be, a young and industrious entrepreneur named Fred Hawkins, who at the time was employed in a Tallahassee shoe shop, and who would soon distinguish himself, with Jacque at his side, as the fifth-generation proprietor of America’s oldest independent shoe service.
Within a few short years, the two had given life to Rick and Roger, and worked relentlessly to build and maintain a veritable small empire, which included several homes, rental properties, a locally dominant boot store and shoe repair shop, and ownership of the highest sand dune on St. George Island, Florida. Jacque was a perennial instrument in the building of wealth and security.
A maintainer of tradition, etiquette, and moral virtues, Jacque instilled in her sons a love of God and country, along with a work ethic and love for commerce and business. Nevertheless, she always displayed fine cheer, patience, and an evergreen persona of playful youth, which she shared with her sons. For example, when the eldest son Rick bought a souped-up hotrod on his fifteenth birthday, she “participated” in his first street-race on Dairy Farm Road, outside Bainbridge, Georgia as his somewhat reluctant passenger. When Roger finally paid off the layaway at RadioShack for his super-powerful, mega-thousand-watt stereo system, she would dance with him in his bedroom of the giant plantation house we lived in on East Evans Street to the “easy-listening” sounds of Blue Oyster Cult or Van Halen, turned up to a spectacular volume. Wisely, she didn’t mind when the two boys got into occasional trouble; she knew that the lessons learned in youth are far more gentle than the ones that over-sheltered kids often learn later as adults. Of course, she refused to be lenient when situations dictated that she be a fierce parent. She allowed us the freedoms to explore life, but never the permission to disrespect authority. The two sons enjoyed gun collections at an early age, but would have never considered packing one to church or school. Jacque was always happy in motherhood duties, whether it was teaching her boys to skin a catfish, how to save and invest earned income, how to pray specifically, how to set a table, or how to conduct oneself on a date.
As for the things that she personally enjoyed, Jacque loved cats, gardening, decorating, crossword puzzles, light sketching and amateur poetry.
Yet, nothing gave her more joy and satisfaction than seeing the appreciation in the eyes of her husband, her sons, and her grandchildren, and feeling their very real love for her.
Jacque is preceded in death by her sister, Florence Trawick; brother, Henry Hall Jr.; grandson, Jedidiah Hawkins. She is survived by her husband, Benjamin Frederick Hawkins Sr.; sons, Rick (Denise) Hawkins, Roger (Melissa) Hawkins; grandchildren, Jeanni Hawkins (Stacy Beavers), Erica (Scott) Brubaker, Wesley (Hannah) Katterhenry, Kimberly (Adam) Erickson, James Hawkins, Caisee Hawkins, Colt Hawkins, Ben Caleb Hawkins, Joseph Hawkins; great-grandchildren, Chloe, Aiden, Morgan, Aaron, Lilian, Kaysen, Kayden Kaylee, Scarlett and, Zeke.
A Celebration of Life Service will be conducted at 12:00 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 in the chapel of Owen Funeral Home. The interment will follow at 2:00 pm at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton, GA. The family will receive friends on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 from 10:30 am until 12:00 pm at Owen Funeral Home.
Please visit www.owenfunerals.com to leave online condolences for the family. Owen Funeral Home 12 Collins Dr Cartersville, GA is honored to serve the Hawkins family.
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