Sarah Rhodes Hinman passed away peacefully on Thursday, December 17, 2015 in  Asheville, NC. Sarah Ruth Rhodes was born on September 20, 1926 in Murray, KY to Christine Whitnell Rhodes and Andrew Lee Rhodes. Sarah graduated from Murray High School (KY) in 1943 where she received awards for dramatic interpretation and was a much sought-after dance companion at the local dance socials arranged for the young soldiers preparing for WWII. Sarah earned her B.S. in Home Economics from Murray State University three years later in 1946, where she shone as a drum majorette and served as the first president of Alpha chapter of Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority. Among her closest childhood friends was John Mack Carter, later the legendary publisher of McCall’s, Ladies Home Journal, and Good Housekeeping magazines.  Sarah entered the professional working world at age 19 in 1947 with McDonald Brothers of Memphis, TN demonstrating Philco home electrical appliances to a new population of electricity consumers, beneficiaries of the TVA. She was courted by many eager young men home from the War, but after a blind date to a Bob Hope concert in Memphis with radio personality Preston Buckingham “Buck” Hinman, Jr. in the spring of 1949, the two were married on September 4th of that same year and she moved to Clarksdale, MS to join her husband. Buck was station manager of historic WROX radio, having hired the first black announcer in the Mississippi Delta in 1947. Her three sons, Andy, Charles, and Kelley, were born in Clarksdale, MS, all eighteen months apart. Buck entered the nascent television industry and became general manager of WCBI (ch.4) television in Columbus, MS in 1956 and the Hinman family established their “home on the hill” where they lived for many years.  Sarah and Buck traveled to NYC to attend CBS affiliate functions in the early 60’s and  mingled with the cast of GUNSMOKE, Clint Eastwood, James Arness, and her boys’  favorite, Rod Serling. Sarah served on the Wesley Foundation, the Junior Auxiliary, as chairman of the Speaker’s Bureau of the Amercan Lung Association, as an honorary memberof the Mississippi Broadcasters Association, as Director of the Columbus CommunityConcert Series, and as a Cub Scout den mother. She had superb culinary skills, bothinherited and acquired, that made her cinnamon and dinner rolls, biscuits, and ginger cookies legendary.  Although ideally suited to be a loving wife and mother, an ideal homemaker, and the perfect hostess, Sarah was resilient in adapting to the life and demands of a single parent raising three young boys after Buck died suddenly of a heart attack on January 8, 1965 at age 44.  She went to work as a bible story teacher in the Columbus public schools, and in 1967 was hired as an admissions counselor/recruiter for Mississippi State College for Women (now MUW) and traveled the territories of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee for ten years to attract young women to the “W” to pursue their advanced education and achieve much more than an MRS degree in college. After moving back to Memphis, TN in 1977, Sarah successfully managed the executive dining rooms at the Memphis Bank and Trust indowntown Memphis until 1987 and later worked as Volunteer Coordinator for the Johnson Auxiliary to the Regional Medical Center. She dutifully travelled regularly to Murray to care for her mother Christine and later her great aunt Mayme Whitnell. Sarah returned to live in the Whitnell family homeplace in Murray, KY in 1992 where she worked part-time at the Boy Scout Museum. She moved to Austin, TX in 2002 and finally to Asheville, NC in 2008. A lifelong Methodist, Sarah attended the First United Methodist Churches of Murray, KY and Columbus, MS, Christ United Methodist (Memphis), University Methodist, Trinity United Methodist, and Covenant United Methodist (Austin, TX), Hollywood United Methodist (LA,CA), and was warmly welcomed at First Baptist Church of Asheville, NC with her family. Sarah raised her sons to “do what they love” and “do their best”, without regard for monetary gains. They became an architect, a doctor, and an actor and teacher.  She was a devoted mother, aunt, sister, and grandmother who was fiercely supportive of those she loved and was unabashedly proud of her progeny. She possessed a contagious generosityof spirit and exuded a social vibrancy that could fill a room, while still displaying a genteel Southern charm that could warm even the most jaded curmudgeon. She was at ease in all social circles and treated all equally. She loved to read, attend live theatre and concerts, take walks, travel, engage in conversation, and, above all, visit with her family and friends. She developed dementia in her later years but that didn’t stop her from dancing at her granddaughter’s wedding or giving compliments to strangers or hugs to friends and family.  She will be missed by many and remembered fondly.  Sarah leaves a sister, Anne Rhodes Hamilton of Winter Park, FL; three sons and daughters-in-law: Andrew P.Hinman and Rebecca Campbell of Austin, TX, Dr. Charles R. and Diane Hinman of Austin, TX, and Kelley F. and Callan White Hinman of Asheville, NC; seven grandchildren: Adam, Brendan, Erin, Callista, Rhodes, Buck, and Lizzy Hinman. Nieces and nephews: Christine and Charles Hamilton, Reine Hinman Overton, George, Don, and Bill Hinman.

Anyone who wishes to remember Sarah is asked (in lieu of flowers) to make a contribution in her name to the employee Christmas fund for the caring and supportive staff at Fleshers Fairview Nursing Facility on Cane Creek Road in Asheville, NC and either Meals On Wheels of Asheville, NC, or your local MOW. If able, they can also dance to Glenn Miller’s IN THE MOOD to remember Sarah, as she so loved to dance, or to give a warm smile and hug to someone who needs it - and who doesn’t. Sarah’s ashes will be scattered over time in the many places she lived, but her headstone will be placed next to her only husband Buck’s grave in Greenwood, MS in a private ceremony sometime in the late spring.

A Memorial Service for Sarah will be held on Friday, June 17, 2016 at 5PM in the Chapel of First United Methodist Church, Columbus, Mississippi.  All are invited to attend.