Jimmie Lee Sutton

October 23, 1930 - March 6, 2019

Jimmie Lee Sutton, 88, of Columbia, MO, passed away on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at University of Missouri Hospital. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, March 16, 2019, at True Life Apostolic Church, 211 Benton St., Columbia, Mo., 65203 at 12:00 PM. Visitation will be from 11-12 PM Saturday at the church. He was born in Drew, Mississippi to the union of Willie Sutton and Martha T. Brown, he was their only son. After his parents divorced, Jimmie Lee moved with Martha and his new stepfather John Henry Brown to Shaw, Mississippi where he was raised for a few years before moving to Indianola, Mississippi, with his grandmother Caroline Thompson. On July 22, 1950 in the state of Mississippi, Jimmie Lee was united in marriage to Mary Hazel McConnell, the daughter of Richard and Essie Matthews-McConnell who preceded him in death July 26, 2012, Mary was 81. Jimmie Lee growing up in the south became an excellent farmer and sharecropper, their first child Mary Ann Sutton-Kennedy was born in 1950 on Johnson Barrett Plantation. Hired on at Mason Brick Company in 1956 Jimmie Lee became the best bricklayer in the county. Moving in 1969 to Sikeston, Missouri the family had grown significantly. The family moved to Columbia in the 1970s. Working numerous jobs, Jimmie Lee landed a position at the University of Missouri for 20 plus years. He was the patriarch of the family who loved to grill outdoors and taught his sons the craft of grilling which were the humble beginnings of the famous Sutton Place BBQ where our 43rd President of the United States of America William Jefferson Clinton stopped by to dine. Jimmie Lee is survived by 13 children, seven daughters: Mary Ann (John) Kennedy, Martha Ann Jones, Essie May Rainey, Pastor Sarah Alice (Joseph) Wilson, Emma Jean Richardson, Dorothy Jean Sutton, Cassandra (Al) Kheswa; six sons: Jimmy Lee Sutton Jr., Dennis Smith-Sutton, James Barton (Vanessa) Sutton, Larry Donial (Pamela) Sutton, Darryl (Kaila) Jackson-Sutton; one god child Anna (Oscar) Kemp; three sisters-in-law Bonita Judd, Celia McConnell, Mary McConnell; two brothers-in-law: William (Ada) McConnell, John McConnell; special friends Venus Clark, the Collins family of Mississippi; thirty-four grandchildren, forty-six great grandchildren, and seven great-great grandchildren. Jimmie was preceded in death by both parents Willie Sutton and Martha Sutton-Brown, stepfather John Henry Brown, his faithful wife of 62 years Mary Hazel, infant son John Sutton 1958, adult son Jerry Lee Sutton 2011, and granddaughter Vanessa V. Fair.