Mary Sue Vandergriff

Mary Sue Rollings Vandergriff, 87, passed away Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 at Shepherd’s Cove Hospice in Albertville. Funeral Services will be held Friday, March 13th, 2020 at Marshall Memorial Funeral Home in Albertville with Brother Joey Cannady officiating, and burial afterwards in Marshall Memory Gardens.

Music will be provided by Zac Cannady, vocalist, and Mike Hall, pianist. Pallbearers include Mrs. Vandergriff’s great grandsons Bryson Banks and Elliott Banks, Jerry Mosley, Drake Smith, Lee Rauschenberg, Bobby Stimler, Orville Mosley and Joey Cannady.

She was preceded in death by her husband Orville J. Vandergriff, son Mike Vandergriff, parents Guy and Nolalou Wood Rollings, and brother Charlie Rollings, all of Marshall County.  She is survived by granddaughters Jenny Banks and Callie Grace Ann Vandergriff, and three great grandchildren, Bryson, Elliott and Annslee Banks, brother-in-law Eli Vandergriff, sister-in-law Mary Vandergriff Phillips and brother-in-law Harold Phillips.

Mrs. Vandergriff achieved something that might be hard to duplicate nowadays; she worked at the same place, doing essentially the same job, for 44 years.

A resident of Marshall County all of her life, Miss Sue, also affectionately known as “Doob,” was born in 1932 and raised near Claysville and later moved to East Lake. Shortly after she graduated Marshall County High School in 1950, she was hired as payroll clerk for the Marshall County Superintendent of Education’s office. At that time, the county school system served all of the schools in the county, 59 schools with nearly 12,000 students.

According to Ann Rollings who worked with her for 28 years, Sue began doing payroll and all of its related tasks “by hand.” She moved to the manual typewriter which was replaced by the electric typewriter and eventually the computer, and Mrs. Vandergriff still did the payroll.

She retired in 1994, having done the same job in all of its incarnations for 6 different superintendents of education, M. G. Rains, Beamon Lyons, Wayland Cooley, Fred Downs, Frank Reed and Charles Edmonds. The office of superintendent changed as city schools were removed from the county jurisdiction and as it physically moved from the second floor of the court house, to Crossroads School and on to the current location on Highway 431 at the top of the mountain.

In 1950, Sue Rollings married Orville Vandergriff, who would later become chairman of the county commission, and they had one son, Mike, in 1953. They began their married life at East Lake, and in the 1960s moved to Red Barn Road and finally to the current residence on Buchanan Road near Solitude Baptist Church. Orville Vandergriff passed away in 2010, and Mike Vandergriff passed away in 2007.

The name “Doob” came from Mrs. Vandergriff’s granddaughter who, as a toddler was trying to pronounce “Sue,” which came out as “Doob.” The name stuck and has been used by many of her family and friends for more than 40 years. She reveled in her granddaughters and great grandchildren, saying her granddaughter Jenny (Banks) is the daughter she never had. Having taken care of great grandson, Bryson, as a baby for mother Jenny to work, Bryson and Doob developed an uncommon bond as well.

Mrs. Vandergriff was just 17 days from her 88th birthday when she passed away. Solitude Baptist Church Pastor Joey Cannady said at her 86th birthday party, “Sue is a picture of God’s grace and I thank God for her presence in our church, but more than that, in my life.” There are many others who remember her with a similar phrase, “full of grace and beauty.”

The family will receive friends from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm on Thursday March 12th at Marshall Memorial Funeral Home.