Jetty L. Wood Tucker, of Greensboro, 99, passed away at her residence on January 10, 2023, four days shy of her 100th birthday, following a brief illness. Service information will be published shortly.
Jetty was born on January 14, 2023, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Harry and Eula Gaither Wood, both who predeceased her. She attended James A. Gray High School, where she was editor of the blue and gray annual, and in the National Honor Society, and graduated as salutatorian. She then went to nursing school at City Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem, graduating as valedictorian, and later scoring the highest grade on the NC Nursing Boards. Jetty then traveled out west to San Jose, California, to work at hospital, while waiting to marry the love of her life, Harvey Tucker, who was serving the Navy. They were married on December 23, 1944.
Jetty moved with Harvey to South Carolina where she worked at home raising six children. After moving to Greensboro in the 1950s, she started a career at Moses Cone Memorial Hospital, helping to institute the opening of the first intensive care unit and then the first cardiac care unit at the hospital as charge nurse. After Harvey and she moved to Charlotte in 1970, she served as an instructor at Mercy Hospital. She finished out her career as director of nursing at Enrico Doctors Hospital in Richmond in the mid 1970s. After she and Harvey retired to Greensboro in 1977, Jetty took a number of courses in interior design, spent time traveling with Harvey, gardening, sewing, reading, and taking care of grandchildren. After Harvey died in 1996, she audited four years of seminary through Southeastern Theological Seminary
local branch.
God was always first in Jetty’s life. Raised Moravian, she started teaching Sunday School to children at the age of 15, and continued teaching at the various churches she attended until the age of 90. She last taught at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Greensboro, where she was a member. Jetty taught numerous Bible studies over the years for Christian Women’s Club and in her home. She always found time to talk and pray with friends and family. Jetty spent her retirement years traveling, gardening, reading, cooking, and quilting. She was always busy and wanting to learn new things.
She was predeceased by her husband, Harvey; her parents, her brother, Bruce Wood, and sister, Esther Hartley, and her oldest son, Robert Tucker.
She is survived by her daughter, Karen Sue Tucker Matthew, Greensboro, N.C.; sons, Gene Tucker (Susan), Greensboro, N.C., Ryan Tucker, Chicago, Il; Reggie Tucker
(Dawn), Ocean Isle, N.C.; and Rodney Tucker, Nashville, N.C. She is also survived by grandchildren, Gina Tucker, Winston-Salem, N.C.; Tina Tucker Walker (Chad), Oak Ridge, N.C.; Adrienne Tucker, San Diego, CA; Jenna Tucker Turbyfill (Lee), Greensboro, N.C., Matthew Tucker, Charlotte, N.C., and Destiny Tucker, Archdale, N.C. She is also survived by three step grandchildren, two great-granddaughters, and five step great grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.