Obit – Mrs. Jean Kemp-Holland
Mrs. Jean Kemp-Holland of the Defeated Creek Community was discovered unresponsive by her granddaughter Amy at 1:20 a.m. at their Defeated Creek Highway home. She was pronounced deceased at the age of 92 at 3:25 a.m. Thursday morning July 24, 2025 at the Highpoint Health-Riverview Medical Center emergency department.
Eld. Charles Patterson officiated at the 11 a.m. Saturday morning July 26th funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Burial followed in the Kemp family lot in section five beside the father of her two sons at the Defeated Creek Memorial Gardens.
The eldest of three daughters, she was born Thelma Jean Kittrell in the Defeated Creek Community to the late Kirk Ezell (Harrison) Kittrell who died December 26, 1998 at the age of 88 and Mary Sueneal Martin Kittrell who died July 6, 1990 at the age of 74.
She attended Smith County High School and was a recipient of her General Education Degree.
The father of their two sons was Difficult Community native James Harver Kemp Sr. who died of a heart attack on their Beasley Hollow farm on March 22, 1982 at the age of 51.
She suffered a traumatic loss of a son to cancer, James Harvey Kemp Jr., who died on November 26, 1987 at the age of 34.
Also preceding her in death was her middle sister, Wayne Gray Kittrell West, who died at the age of 78 on March 16, 2013.
On August 28, 1982, she was united in marriage at the Dycus Circuit Methodist Parsonage in Kempville to Bagdad Community native, Hulon John Richard Holland. He preceded her in death on September 13, 2024 at the age of 91 following just over forty-two years of marriage.
Most of her life was as a devoted homemaker and for eight years she served as a teacher’s aide at the Defeated Creek Elementary School and for a period of time was a clerk at the former Long’s 5 and 10 Store on the West side of the square.
Mrs. Kemp-Holland was saved and was baptized into the full fellowship of the Defeated Creek Missionary Baptist Church in the Difficult Community.
Surviving is her son, Jeff Kemp and wife Teresa Reece Kemp of the Salt Lick Community; sister, Pat Kittrell Bush of the Defeated Creek Community; five grandchildren, Amy Kemp Brodie of the Defeated Creek Community, Dustin Kemp and wife Kristen of Lebanon, James (Jamie) Kemp III and wife Anita of Gallatin, Jeanette Kemp Shanks and husband Jason of the Silver Point Community; Kayla Kemp Keaton and husband Dusty of the Sykes Community; sixteen great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
