If you knew Iva Jewel Tucker, then you aren’t surprised she lived to the age of 93.
Iva Jewel’s spunk, spirit and tenacity rivaled everyone she met. Her quick wit could easily have been the inspiration behind today’s humorous memes and gifs on social media.
Those of us at The Alabama Baptist/TAB Media who worked with Iva Jewel recalled fun stories about her when we heard of her passing Feb. 24. We also realized how much we still use her sayings.
Iva Jewel spent two five-year stints with TAB as a copy editor. She also read the final proof of the paper before it went to press.
“If God and Jesus are spelled right, then let it go,” she would say as deadline loomed. “She hath done what she could” would be what we heard as she left each day.
And when we would fret about a minor issue when a major issue needed attention, she would say, “We are painting the front porch while the kitchen is on fire.”
Iva Jewel also gave the same energy and effort to The Birmingham News during her eight years there.
But it was the 15 years at national Woman’s Missionary Union that claimed her heart. She served as editor of AWARE magazine for leaders of Girls in Action (GA) organizations and DISCOVERY magazine for GAs. She also wrote and edited other missions materials.
“I loved my career as an editor almost as much as my primary career as wife and mother,” Iva Jewel wrote on her Facebook page. “Jesse Tucker and I were married 27 years (he died in 1975). We had four beautiful children … (JoAnn, Karen, Kathryn and Richard).”
Iva Jewel was quite possibly the toughest person I’ve ever known. She served the Lord with a relentless effort, copyedited everything with words on it (seriously nonstop), poured into every child around her and always found a way around the obstacles in front of her.
She fought through a lifetime of difficult situations, including the loss of her second daughter, Karen, as a toddler and an intense recovery from Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) at 84 years old. GBS left her paralyzed from the neck down and unable to speak at first but even that didn’t stop her. And now she truly “hath done what she could.”
—Jennifer Davis Rash
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