The Honorable T. Penn McWhorter passed away at his home in Winder on Sunday, November 13, 2022. Judge McWhorter was born in Winder on January 15, 1934, to his parents Geraldine and Joseph Penn McWhorter. Born into and raised in very humble conditions he overcame multiple obstacles to excel scholastically and attended Emory at Oxford, Emory University, and the University of Georgia School of Law. He had many jobs; short order cook, curb hop, Southern Bell lineman, Congressional Committee staffer and the US Postal Department to pay for his schooling. On a blind date, Penn met Eileen Graham of Beaumont, TX who was attending Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. The romance began and Penn got hired by Benson’s bakery to deliver fruitcakes to a territory that happened to include Beaumont, TX. Penn and Eileen were married on June 21, 1958, and established a home in Atlanta for a short time before returning to Winder to raise a family of five.
Penn established a law firm and practiced alone for short time but soon had several beloved law partners over his twenty-six years of practice. He served as City Attorney for Winder and Statham and practiced every type of law. His family recalls waking up one morning to a chicken coop in the back yard that a client had use to pay his legal fees. In 1986 he gave up practicing law when he was appointed as a Georgia Superior Court Judge for the Piedmont Judicial Circuit where he served for twenty years until he sat as a Senior Judge for the State of Georgia until 2017.
Penn McWhorter loved the people of Winder and Barrow County deeply. He was deeply involved in the community. He served as president of the Winder Jaycees, Kiwanis Club, Chamber of Commerce, and multiple committees of the Winder First United Methodist Church for over fifty years. He and his wife Eileen taught many years of Sunday School and he often stated he found that to be the most rewarding of all his efforts.
Many recall the sartorial splendor of a man who loved clothes and certainly showed no fear in his choices. He even applied that fearlessness to the judicial uniform opting for a blue robe in place of the traditional black. He loved to sing and would often remind his family of just how good a voice he had. His sense of humor and kindness shown through all that he did and could lighten any dark mood with a quip that at least he believed to be clever. He had unshakeable integrity and was a genuine and authentic example to family and friends.
As a friend, he will be remembered well. As a husband, father, grandfather, and as of September 2022, great-grandfather, he will never be forgotten and will always be “Grandman” to the family. He named himself The Grandman by the way but we dropped the “The” in the name of good taste.
T. Penn McWhorter was preceded in death by his wife Eileen (d.2016) and daughter Graham (d.1968). Penn is survived by the families of his four children: Thad and Denise McWhorter and their daughters: Carroll and husband Jon Fitzpatrick, and Allie, Emma, Mae and Jessie McWhorter of Statham, GA; Mason and Brooke McWhorter and their daughters Mary Mason Huber and husband Grayson, and Parrish McWhorter of Watkinsville, GA; Matthew McWhorter and children Sadie and Pierce McWhorter of Winder, GA; and Lauren and Kevin Stanley and son Slade, his wife Taylor and son Elias, and Cami Stanley of Cleveland, GA.
Services include a viewing on Wednesday, November 16 from 4:00 until 6:00 pm at Smith Funeral Home in Winder, GA. Funeral services will be Thursday, November 17th at 2:00 pm at the Winder First United Methodist Church in Winder, GA. Rev. Bill McKoy will officiate. The family asks for donations to the First United Methodist Church in Winder in lieu of flowers.
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