Donna Hall Hurst, 84, of Jackson Hollow Road, Lancaster, died Friday night, September 20, 2024 at Alive Hospice in Nashville after being life-flighted to Vanderbilt Hospital the previous week following a major stroke. She was a longtime member of the Buffalo Valley Presbyterian Church.
Donna was born in the Newdale community of Burnsville, N.C., daughter of Herbert and Grace Autrey Hall. She and her husband, Jack moved to DeKalb County in 1985 from Chicago, where Jack had been a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. They met when she was working in Washington as personal secretary to U.S. Senator Ernest F. (Fritz) Hollings of South Carolina and Jack was working as a reporter for the Nashville Tennessean.
As a very young girl, Donna played piano for the Newdale Presbyterian Church as well as for a local gospel group called the Sunshine Trio. She was salutatorian of her graduating class at Micaville (N.C.) High School, and her first employment was as a secretary for the golf club at Biltmore Estate.
She volunteered to work in Fritz Holling’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate and was chosen by him to become a member of his first Senate staff. Moving to Washington on her own was a big step for a Carolin mountain girl, but she went to Capitol Hill and promised herself to stay at least six months to give herself a chance to like it. It was a hard, lonely, and not-well-paid life at first, but she stuck it out and grew to love it.
She particularly liked being a part of the Hollings office across a hall from Senator Ted Kennedy’s office. She said Senator Kennedy was very nice to her in the wake of her father’s death. She also enjoyed seeing such visiting Hollywood celebrities as Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Hollings esteemed her to the point that, after she resigned to marry, he attended the wedding. She and Jack observed their fifty-third anniversary on April 17.
Donna loved to play the piano until a first stroke damage her right side in her late fifties. She was also very interested in country music and national politics. She had a fine sense of humor and a knack for memorably naming animals, including a calf named Lucille Bawl and dogs she dubbed Fancy Strut and Merle Haggard. She also loved to read and travel. Her favorite destinations included Greece and the Grand Canyon.
She is survived by her husband, Jack Hurst of Lancaster; niece, Jennifer ricks of Sneads Ferry, N.C.; nephew, Ralph McNeill of Washington, N.C. and a cousin, Edna Earle Fox of Burnsville, N.C.
Donna chose cremation, and plans for a memorial service are pending. DeKalb Funeral Chapel is honored to care for the Hurst Family.
