Jessie Hankins Compton went to be with Lord on Sunday, July 12, 2015. The daughter of Jesse Jewell and Ethel Carver Hankins, she was born on December 4, 1929, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Raised in Arkansas, she graduated from Pine Bluff High School in 1947. Upon graduation, she attended Judkins Commercial College and went to work with Arkansas Power and Light Company. During this time she began to teach dance, a particular love of hers since her days as a student at the Dorothy Donaldson School of Dance in Little Rock. She later closed the studio she had begun in order to attend Blue Mountain College in Mississippi, but returned to Pine Bluff after a year. She came to know the Lord as her personal Savior during an Eddie Martin Revival during this time period.
In the fall of 1951, she moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to attend Tennessee Temple College. Here she met and courted William “Bill” Compton from Decatur. They were married on December 27, 1953, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. She would support Bill and his ministry throughout over 60 years of both evangelism and the pastorate.
Jessie and Bill raised three sons, primarily in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She served the Lord, her husband and her family in many capacities. She taught first grade at Tennessee Temple Elementary School and later served for ten years as the first school secretary for Tennessee Temple High School. For a short time period, she even had her own family oriented half hour radio show on W-DYN, the radio voice of Tennessee Temple Schools at that time. She was active in the Seekers and Ahava Sunday School Class at Highland Park Baptist Church for 25 years. She taught Sunday school and sang in church choirs in the places where Bill was pastoring. She also enjoyed sewing, traveling, reading and studying her well-worn Bible.
She was preceded in death by father, Jesse Hankins; mother, Ethel Hankins; and brother, Lawrence Hankins.
Jessie Compton is survived by her husband of 62 years, William “Bill” Compton and her three sons and their families, Leslie (Nancy) Compton, of Chattanooga, Tennessee: Scott (Lori) Compton, of Kernersville, North Carolina; and Schuyler (Ruth) Compton, of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Surviving grandchildren include Denver and Austin Compton (Schuyler and Ruth), Harper and Weston Compton (Scott and Lori) Jessie Anne and Mary Margaret Compton (Leslie and Nancy). Great-grandchildren include Bryn and Blakely Compton (Denver and Colby). She is also survived by two sisters, Joyce Hornaday, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Dorothy (Joe) Adams, of Savanah, Georgia; and one sister-in-law, Mary Hankins, of Atkins, Arkansas; and many nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Friday, July 17, 2015, at 2 p.m. Central time at Roselawn Funeral Home Chapel in Decatur, with Chaplain Darryl Fortenberry officiating. A time of visitation will be Friday from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Entombment will be in Roselawn Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Denver Compton, Austin Compton, Harper Compton, Weston Compton, Allan Adams and Jay Terry.
Flowers will be accepted or donations may be made to the Gideon’s.
To sign the online guest registry, please go to roselawnfhandcemetery.com
