Obituary of Jewell Jones Hudson

Mrs. Jewell Byrd Hudson, age 100, of Ozark, passed away Wednesday, December 13, 2017, at her home. Funeral services will be 11:00 A.M. Friday, December 15, 2017, in the Chapel of Holman Funeral Home in Ozark with Reverend Dr. Eric Fuller and Chaplain Adam Mulliner officiating. Interment will follow in Woodlawn Memory Gardens, Holman Funeral Home and Cremations of Ozark directing. The family will receive friends in the funeral home Friday from 10:00 A. M. until service time. Mrs. Hudson was a lifetime resident of Ozark, Alabama. When she graduated from high school in 1935, she passed a test during the summer and received a license to teach. Her principal told her father that she was too young and too small to teach, and he should send her to Troy State College (now Troy University). The requirements were two years but with her Class D license, she attended for one year. She taught at Newton School for one year and then taught at Sylvan Grove (a two- teacher school) for three years before going to Skipperville School to teach first grade for four years. In 1945 she began work with the Department of Pensions and Security (now the Department of Human Resources). By taking Troy extension classes in Ozark and Dothan and not working one summer and spending that time on the Troy campus, she earned a BS degree in Education. In 1962 she attended Tulane University School of Social Work in New Orleans, LA to advance her career. She worked for thirty-four years with the Department of Pensions and Security, retiring as Director of the Dale County agency effective March 1, 1979. Mrs. Hudson was active in the civic, cultural and religious life of the area and was president of several organizations including the Pilot Club of Ozark, the Book Club of Ozark, the Alpha Kappa Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma International Society, Dale County Association of Retarded Children, Dale County Mental Health Systems, Dale County Coordinating Council, and Dale County Retired State Employees Association. She was an officer of Dale County Red Cross, the United Way, Dale County Friends of the Library, and an organizer of RSVP and Parents Anonymous. She was on the Board and Director of Friends of the Library and on the Board of the Ann Rudd Arts and Humanities. Mrs. Hudson was a member of the Ozark Baptist Church where she began attending as a toddler. During her teen years she was a member of Campground Baptist Church where she taught Sunday School at age fourteen. After returning to Ozark Baptist Church she taught women’s classes for over fifty years. She was active in all phases of the church. She served as WMS Director, Assistant Training Union Director, Adult Vacation Bible School teacher, later Vacation Bible School teacher for children. She served on many committees. She also directed weddings for a few years. Because of Fletcher’s love for his wife and the church, he placed a beautiful stained glass window in the Ozark Baptist Church. Following her husband’s death, she began teaching women’s classes again, serving on committees and participating in other church activities. Mrs. Hudson’s generous nature showed by her gift of one and one-half acres of land to Grace Baptist Church located on Parker Drive. Mrs. Hudson was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-three years, Fletcher F. Hudson; her parents, Henry David Byrd and Allie M. Fain Byrd; two brothers, Arthur M. Fain and William G. Byrd; two sisters, Allie Belle Smith and Annie Martha Byrd. Survivors include three nieces, Patricia Byrd Hallman (Jimmie) of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Genie Fain Norman (John) of Fort Deposit, Alabama, and Martha Ann Fain Porter of Eufaula, Alabama; one nephew, Gary W. Byrd (Barbara) of Cottondale, Alabama; a longtime friend, Margaret Ann Dowling Lonquist of Clearwater, Florida. Numerous great nieces and nephews also survive. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Ozark Baptist Church Children’s Youth Activities Fund, or Building Fund; or to Morning View Cemetery, C/O Mrs. Christine M. Adams, 199 Stuart Tarter Road, Ozark, Alabama 36360; or to Community Hospice of Dale Medical Center, 126 Hospital Avenue, Ozark, Alabama 36360. The family would like to extend a special thanks to her caregivers; Betty Coleman, Joanne Sanders, Teresa Temples, Tiffany Hallford, and Sherry Stein. Service Information