Jo Anne McLawhorn Padgett

Jo Anne McLawhorn Padgett, 86 of Sandy Springs, died peacefully at Northside Hospital on December 27, 2022. The funeral service will be held on January 21 at 1:00 p.m. at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, with burial at Georgia National Cemetery in Canton, Georgia the day before, January 20, at 2:30 p.m. Jo Anne, affectionately known as JoJo to her grandchildren, was a bright presence in every life around her. Whether you knew her as a sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin, or friend, she manifested her affection and love in her labor, her words, and her brilliant smile.

Jo Anne was born on August 4, 1936, in Winterville, North Carolina, the fourth of four daughters of Dennis Torbet McLawhorn and Madge Jenkins McLawhorn. Jo Anne always recalled her early years with great fondness--a happy childhood that began in a small farm house with no in-door plumbing, but also no lack of warmth and affection. Apart from the plumbing, it was a childhood she would later replicate in many ways for own kids--full of music and play, faith and friendship. She was a faithful member of Winterville Baptist Church–a devotion that lasted, in many ways, her whole life. She attended Winterville High School, where she played varsity basketball and was the salutatorian of her class. She attended Duke University, where she sang in the Duke Chapel Choir and was a member of Phi Mu Sorority. While at Duke she also met her future husband, Douglas M. Padgett (Doug), and became the Sweetheart of his fraternity, Kappa Sigma. She graduated with an A.B. in June 1958 and a Masters of Arts in Teaching in June 1959.

Following Duke, Jo Anne taught school in Melbourne. Florida, while Doug completed pilot training. She married Doug on October 22, 1960 at Winterville Baptist Church. The young couple spent a few months crisscrossing the county as Doug completed his United States Air Force pilot training, but eventually settled in Warner Robins, Georgia, with two Siamese cats. The early years were not always easy for a young Air Force couple. Their first child was stillborn in 1962. But more children quickly followed, and in 1966, Doug took a job at Delta Air Lines and the young family moved to Atlanta.

Over the decades, as her four children grew, Jo Anne did as well. As a wife and a mother, from Warner Robins to south-west Atlanta to Sandy Springs, she pursued a life of engagement and dedication to others, at church, in gardening and historical societies, in entertaining and social life. Her marriage was her foundation and Doug her greatest support–they were partners in family and friendship. She was always on the move, involved and engaged–baking in the kitchen, delivering those baked goods to her friends and family, attending to the details of family life and life in community. Her children and grandchildren’s many sporting, choral, or theater events were mandatory appointments–she refused to miss a single one. She loved her cats and dogs almost as much as her people and the feelings were reciprocated; when Jo Anne visited with her grandchildren, their dog, Ginger, would sit in JoJo’s lap for hours.

Jo Anne had been raised with a commitment to making a home for her family and all that that implies--cultural and art education, a creative dedication to good food and good fun, a delicate grace in all her relations, faith and a principled ethics–and she imparted those values to all around her. Jo Anne was never one just to partake and enjoy–she dedicated time and effort to her interests and causes, just as she did for family and friends. She loved her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and was a devoted member of her church and weekly Bible Study. She sang in the choir of every church she served in. She was also a founding member of the Riverside North Garden Club and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Colonial Dames of America, the Sandy Springs Society, the Phi Mu and Duke alumni associations, and many other organizations, and supported these groups in every way she could.

The world was full of joy and beauty for Jo Anne and she shared that joy and beauty with others. She loved gardens and gardening and raised her children to share that love, growing tomatoes, carrots, strawberries, blueberries, and flowers. Her hill of daffodils is a sight to behold every February. She passed on her devotion to reading–especially who-done-its–and oh how she relished a good TV mystery! Her daring culinary and cosmetic adventures are the stuff of local legend. She could spend hours enjoying the process of both. She delighted in all kinds of theater–from puppets to Broadway. Her love of music, particularly choral music, captured her early and never let go, and she sought it out as a singer and in concerts in Atlanta and around the world.

As a hostess, she excelled. Whether it was the garden club Thanksgiving lunch, a Sunday school party, a dinner for a relative’s engagement, or the family Christmas white elephant party, entertaining was a kind of service and way of expressing her love and appreciation for all around her. Her home, the Padgett house, was open to all– a refuge for her friends and family, and her childrens’ and grandchildrens’ friends and family, to visit (or live in), always open and always warm and, for many cousins and nephews and nieces, especially, a place for fun.

Her spirit of adventure took her far beyond the confines of Georgia. She loved to travel and thrived on the road. Trips early on with her family were a pleasure–though probably no relief from the obligations of motherhood. But traveling with her husband or with friends or her sisters–whether across the country or across the globe–energized her and excited her. She was always ready to hit the road with Doug!

Her family and friends remember her and honor her now, for her integrity, her faith, her enthusiasm, her effort, and the transformational joy she worked in the small part of the world she called her own. She will be greatly missed.

Jo Anne is survived by Doug, her husband of 62 years; four children, Douglas M. Padgett, Jr. and wife, Marsha Massey, of Washington, DC, Marianne Trapnell and husband, Michael, of Marietta, Georgia, Paul M. Padgett II, and his wife, Dana, of Seattle, and Elizabeth Denyse Padgett Henry and husband, David, of Marietta; and eight grandchildren: Elizbeth Trapnell, Anne Morgan Trapnell, Sarah Trapnell, Rebekah Trapnell, Max Padgett, Mark Padgett, Eloise Padgett, and Julian Padgett. She is also survived by one sister, Denyse McLawhorn Smith of Robersonville, NC, 13 nieces and nephews and their spouses, and many cousins, and great nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by two beloved sisters, Mamie McLawhorn Dews and Gay McLawhorn Love.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made in Jo Anne’s honor at the following organizations: Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, designation: Global Ministries (https://www.johnsonferry.org/, click on “Give” or Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, designation: Global Ministries, ATTN: Business Office, 955 Johnson Ferry Road, Marietta, GA 30068), or the Sandy Springs Society (https://sandyspringssociety.org/donations/general-donation/ or P.O. Box 720074 Sandy Springs, Georgia 30358).