Sue L. Williams Camp Webb, age 92, of Dalton, Ga., and formerly of Cohutta, Ga., Detroit, Mich., and Bradley County, Tenn., passed away on September 4 at her residence. She was born in Bradley County in 1932 and was the daughter of the late William Thomas "Tom" Williams and Mattie Louella Jordan Williams.

Mrs. Webb was also preceded in death by her infant sister, Ina Jean Williams, her brother, Ralph Williams, and her sister and brother-in-law, Marie and Robert Kelley. Her first husband, Bill Camp, passed away in 1960, after ten years of marriage. Her second marriage was calamitous, and that husband's name merits no mention.

She is survived by her son, long-time caregiver and biggest fan, Robert Webb of Dalton; her best friend of more than 85 years, Wilma Horne Freeman of Cleveland; and hundreds of other people whose lives she impacted.

She once advised her son, "When you write my obituary, I don't want it to sound like I'm applying for a job in heaven. I'm just an ordinary person. Keep it simple."

She was an "ordinary" person who lived an extraordinary life. Her parents intended her to be named "Suelle" after a well-regarded cousin. The doctor heard the name as "Sue L." and listed that on her birth certificate with an initial rather than a middle name. "I should have known life was going to be interesting when they couldn't even get my name right," she would often say in times of frustration.

A mischievous twinkle in Mrs. Webb's eyes is evident in every childhood photo. She was a firecracker from birth with energy practically bubbling out of her. She was raised on a small subsistence farm, in southeast Bradley County by loving parents. She inherited her mother's kindness and compassion and her father's steely will. To him, she was "Dude," and though they butted heads, he recognized the intelligence behind her independent streak. She shared many stories of working in the fields as a child, pulling a bag five times her size filled with cotton. She also picked strawberries and noted that was a better job because cotton was not tasty, but strawberries certainly were.

Mrs. Webb's father had served as a sharpshooter in World War I, and he taught her to brandish guns with great skill; she was a crack shot well into her seventies. She was a confident horseback rider from an early age, and she later rode and cared for her beloved "Lady" for almost 15 years. Her first pet was a baby squirrel she rescued from a fallen nest. He traveled in her jacket pocket, emerging for peanuts and shenanigans in the one-room school she attended. She hated the classroom because sitting still for hours bored her to tears. However, she adored most of her fellow students and maintained friendships with them for decades.

After turning 16, Mrs. Webb took a work bus from Cleveland to find employment in Dalton's burgeoning bedspread industry, and there she met Bill Camp. Like many Southerners of the 1950s, he saw the industrial North as a great opportunity. After a two-year courtship, they married. The newlyweds and Mr. Camp's family journeyed to Detroit where Mr. Camp found success in the auto industry. After settling into her new life, Mrs. Webb grew to love her time in Detroit. She was astounded by all Detroit had to offer and spent time at the zoo, the botanical gardens and the local horse racing tracks. The living conditions of the inner-city poor startled her, and she volunteered through her church and local charities to provide assistance, beginning a tireless dedication to helping others. Throughout her life, the little girl who received only one doll for Christmas during her own childhood donated more than two-thousand dolls to toy drives.

After her husband's passing, Mrs. Webb returned home to help her family as her father's health was in decline. She married another horseback riding enthusiast that she thought she could help, but that short-lived union provided her only with a son. As a divorced mother in an area with limited childcare options, she needed a job that allowed her to be near her young child. She and her now-widowed mother moved to Cohutta, where she managed her brother-in-law's commercial cattle and chicken farm. She learned to do anything that was needed. Her electrical wiring passed any inspection; she confounded plumbers with how quickly she could correct a problem; she mastered farm equipment and bookkeeping - all while nurturing her son and caring for her aging mother.

Mrs. Webb was a devoted and encouraging parent and sacrificed personally to ensure her son had access to educational resources and learning experiences. She instilled in him her work ethic, love of nature and belief in helping others. When her mother suffered a stroke in 1979, Mrs. Webb made daily visits for five years to support her at the care facility, balancing work, child rearing and a daughter's duty. Shortly after her son graduated college, Mrs. Webb retired. "All my life, I had been someone's daughter, someone's wife, someone's mother, someone's employee, and I was ready to just be me," she said. The following decades would prove to be some of the happiest times of her life.

Mrs. Webb found volunteer opportunities where she could make a difference, many in support of her son's community projects. Her son's favorite memories of his mother are late night drives where they would drop off boxes of food, household supplies, clothes and food at the homes of families that she had learned were dealing with family hardships. She did not want people to know that she helped them because she felt it might make them feel embarrassed or uncomfortable, and she rejected any form of recognition for her good deeds. "If the only reason you help people is for awards and honors, then you don't understand the concept of charity," she said. "You do what needs to be done because that's why we're here: to help others. Jesus didn't ask for a medal, so I certainly don't need one."

Mrs. Webb would later expand her efforts by preparing and delivering meals to families facing serious health issues, and, through those visits, she would identify other needs they might have that she could meet. She noted, "We always need to take care of the old folks who don't have family to help them." Ironically, she was often considerably older than those "old folks," but she never saw herself as old and her zest for life never diminished. She still set off fireworks on the Fourth of July. She still hid eggs for neighborhood children at Easter. She relished delivering huge Christmas fruit baskets to neighbors, friends and service providers because they reminded her of the fruit her father would walk miles to procure for her childhood Christmases.

Mrs. Webb's other great love of her later years was what could charitably be called "enthusiastic" driving. On her last test drive, she took the SUV to 95 mph on a back road and more than likely emotionally scarred the poor car sales associate seated beside her. Mrs. Webb's son would like to share the following with the numerous deputies who needed to stop his mother during her 70s and 80s: Yes, she knew how fast she was driving. No, she didn't pay attention to speed limits. Yes, she was in complete control of the vehicle...or something approximating control. And, no, despite her rather pointed suggestions that your time might be better served chasing criminals than someone on her way to buy groceries, she appreciated all local law enforcement officers, particularly those who flirted back.

After several years of providing care for her older sister, the last years of Mrs. Webb's life were impacted by her own declining health. She retained a buoyant spirit even as her mobility was limited. She became largely housebound during and after the pandemic, though she still enjoyed occasional trips in a wheelchair through her neighborhood and downtown Dalton because she missed seeing people. She entered Hospice care in January 2023, and managed through without complaint for the next twenty months. After a sudden, sharp decline in her health, she died a week later. At her passing, she had an impish grin as if someone had whispered a funny secret in her ear.

Among Mrs. Webb's final wishes were to extend her appreciation to the associates of Amedysis/North Georgia Home Health Care and Amedysis Hospice Care as well as Weaver Health Services in Ringgold and White's Pharmacy in Dalton. For the past eight years, these groups worked with Mrs. Webb's son to meaningfully extend her life and support her well-being. Their expertise, professionalism, compassion and encouragement stand in stark contrast to Mrs. Webb's past local health care experiences, which were often more detrimental than beneficial.

In her declining years, Mrs. Webb noted that "the worst part of aging isn't what you forget; it's that people forget you." An unforgettable character, Mrs. Webb's memory will be preserved in many ways. The new Whitfield County Christmas Tree was dedicated in her honor on April 1, 2024, and renews the long-time tradition of Christmas trees at the courthouse. The Sue L. Webb Serenity Garden will be incorporated into the Robert T. Webb Sculpture Garden, where she was her son's first volunteer, weeding, pruning and collecting litter into her eighties. As she grew older, Mrs. Webb recognized the need for both more nurses to address growing community health needs and resources for the poor who were in failing health. The Sue L. Webb Scholarship in Nursing at Dalton State College will help young people pursue health care careers, and donations in Mrs. Webb's memory may be made at https://daltonstate.givingfuel.com/givenow by completing the online form. Donations to provide the many health care supplies not covered by insurance or Medicare may be made in Mrs. Webb's memory to Dalton's DEO Clinic at https://deoclinic.org/support-deo.

Mrs. Webb's expressed wishes were for no visitation or funeral services. She requested a quiet, dignified interment. She will be entombed at Whitfield Memorial Gardens' Hope Mausoleum after a private thanksgiving for her life. Due to space constraints, floral tributes will be omitted, but she would be honored if anyone planted a shrub or tree while thinking of her.

Funeral arrangements are by Julian Peeples Funeral Home in Dalton. For more information, call 706-259-7455. Messages of condolence may be left at julianpeeples.com.