Martha Gail Love

A private graveside service will be held at New Prospect Baptist Church Cemetery. Rev. Howard Thompson will officiate. Please, everyone, remain in their cars at the graveside.

Martha was a longtime member of New Prospect Baptist Church and was known for her generosity, caring spirit, and love of gospel songs. In her youth, Martha combined her gifts of singing and songwriting to perform with her best friends and bandmates in the group “The Black Cats.” They made two records titled “My Tom” and “No One Will Ever Know,” and they performed at the Governor’s Mansion and also Atlantic City Boardwalk. It was a performance on the campus of UNA that Martha met the love of her life and devoted husband of 61 years, James L. “J.L.” Love of Jasper, Alabama, and they went on to have three children.

The family wishes to extend a special thanks to her caregivers, Cynthia Mitchell, Liz Williams, Shae Harten, and Dionne Montgomery and a very special thanks to a wonderful family friend whom we love as a daughter, Darlene Griffith.

Martha was preceded in death by her late mother, Lizzie Mae “Macie” Hudson; and late father, Charlie Hudson.

She is survived by her husband, J.L. Love; son, Jeff Love (Janette, Kristene and Macie Love); and daughters, Lisa Love Thomas (Aaron and Katie Thomas) and Jenny Love Jones (Allan, Hudson and Nathan Jones). She will be greatly missed by her five grandchildren, who will always remember her loving kindness, joke-telling, and her unique, creative way of being “the best storyteller of all time.”

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to be made to New Prospect Baptist Church “Renovation Fund.”