Sue Hembree

Sue Hembree died May 15th at Hope Cottage-a division of Sunset Homes in Clifton, TX. Graveside services will be held at Red Oak Cemetery in Red Oak, TX with Rev. Brad Slaten officiating.

Virginia Sue Baker Hembree was born on September 9, 1926 in Peach Orchard, Arkansas. Her parents, Gladys(Miller) and Walter Baker, provided an idyllic country life for their third child, forever changed by the car crash that killed her older sister and brother. Her resulting brief stay in the children's ward of a hospital set her path of empathy and care giving.

Sue felt she had “ cut her teeth on church pews", and at the age of 14 made her profession of faith. She felt called to be a medical missionary, fueled by a summer of volunteering at the Arkansas State Crippled Children's Hospital in little Rock before graduating from high school in 1944.
She completed pre-med courses at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas, and was accepted at the University of Arkansas Medical College, but recognized God's redirection. She was commissioned and ordained in the Salvation Army in 1950. There she met another Salvation Army "soldier", Truman Hembree, a wheelchair bound victim of polio, who shared Sue's love of camping, Canoeing and fishing, "critters" and people. Two years later they were married and shared their lives for 32 years.

A week into their marriage Sue entered nursing school and received a BS from Baylor University in September 1955. She decided to try school nursing for 1 year and gave the next 31 years to the Jefferson Davis School in Dallas, loving and caring for other people's children.

In their spare time, Sue and Truman hand-built their cabin on Choctaw Trail in Whitney, where Sue chose to live after Truman's death (1984) and her retirement (1986).

Sue, in her own words, thought it was in her genes to have (1) a love for God's creation, nature and critters, (2) a respect for others, and (3) a desire to make others happy by alleviating pain and suffering in some way. She was left with no immediate family, but she found friends in her community and at King Memorial United Methodist Church. She cared for baby goats, cats and dogs until becoming a victim of Alzheimer's Disease in 2009. Since them, Sue has lived at Park Plaza Nursing Home in Whitney,
Lakeshore Nursing Home in Waco, and Sunset Home in Clifton.

Memorials in her honor can be given to King Memorial United Methodist Church, P. O. Box 612, Whitney, TX 76692 or the North Texas Humane Society.

Burial

2:00 PM ,Thursday, May 17, 2018
Red Oak Cemetery
Red Oak , TX