Claudine Hawkins

 Claudine A. Hawkins was born on June 23, 1929 in Halifax county North Carolina to loving parents Mamie and John. On Monday May 1, 2023, she left her earthly life to transition to an eternal one after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Claudine was the last surviving child of her family of eleven Arrington siblings. She leaves her beloved children, Gerald, Linda, Claudius and Kevin with a younger daughter, Lori who predeceased her in 1993 and a son Jesse Jr. who predeceased her in 2021 as well as her husband Jesse who predeceased her in 2013. She will truly be missed by all of her adoring nieces and nephews and her treasured grandchildren, Victor, Angela, Lauren and Everette, as well as her great grandchildren Salim, Na’Imah and Sanaa.

Claudine attended Halifax County Schools and eventually moved to Norfolk, Virginia to begin a life and start a family with her husband Jesse. She was a homemaker with multifaceted skills ranging from child rearing and cooking to financial management of the home/family, sewing and knitting. She truly devoted her life to her husband, raising children, loving her family and serving her community.

She worked alongside her husband at Christ Church in 1952 and later moved to St. Paul CME Church and became a life- long member. She served in many capacities and frequently attended national CME conferences.

Community service was always central to her life. She and "Uncle Doc" participated in and served the local community in a plethora of ways; she helped create scholarships for Sunrise Hills graduates, performed wellness visits to ailing residents and planned annual cookouts and other social events. She was also secretary of the Sunrise Hills Civic League for seventeen (17) years. In this role she petitioned the city of Chesapeake for a traffic light at the entrance of Sunrise Hills on Campostella Rd. after several accidents.

As a community volunteer for ten (10) years with the City of Chesapeake Registrar’s office, she assisted voters in all elections. Claudine also represented Chesapeake as a delegate to the juvenile justice convention series across the U.S.

She happily aided her husband, who was appointed to the Juvenile Justice Division of Chesapeake by developing projects for incarcerated youth i.e., learning farming techniques to run a garden that yielded products they eventually sold to support their activities.

Claudine will always remain in our memories as the truest representation of women of her generation. She put God first, loved and served her family with a deep abiding loyalty and worked tirelessly for her community with grace, whimsy, compassion and that famous smile

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