James Henning Porter, Iv

James Henning Porter IV, known to many as Jim but to his family and lifelong friends as Jimmie, passed peacefully out of this life on July 11, 2019. His death came after a brief but valiant three months following a diagnosis of liver cancer. He was three weeks shy of his sixty-fifth birthday. A master carpenter for more than thirty years, Jimmie could work wonders with wood, saws, hammers, and power drills. Over the years he was employed by several companies in the Atlanta area, but in the last decade of his life he enjoyed working for himself and stayed busy for new customers who found him by word of mouth. His reputation as a skilled craftsman with exacting standards put him in high demand. He left a legacy of gratitude from countless homeowners whose houses, porches, spare bedrooms, finished basements, and dens he completed with lines perfectly plumb and corners exactly squared. Despite his talents as a builder, Jimmie found his true spiritual calling and artistic outlet in music - playing it, writing it, and recording it. He delighted in his large collection of guitars, each of which had a particular quality that he admired, and many of which he had modified to meet his own demanding specifications. Three weeks before his death, he gathered with a small number of friends who shared his passion for music and bequeathed to each of them the particular guitars and equipment he thought should belong to them. Jimmie also became an expert motorcycle mechanic and enjoyed customizing his Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which he rode to all points of the compass. Born in Florence, South Carolina, on August 2, 1954, Jimmie came into the world on what family lore said was the hottest day in US history to that time. His reddish-blond hair may have been testament to that heat. He was the son of James Henning Porter III and Sara Winn “Fay” Langston Porter, both of South Carolina. The family moved to Georgia when Jimmie was about three years old, and eventually settled in Avondale Estates. Jimmie graduated from Avondale High School, where he was a soccer player and a state champion gymnast. He attended LaGrange College and later earned an associate degree from DeKalb College (now Georgia Perimeter College). He was preceded in death by both of his parents and a younger brother, Leland Langston “Lee” Porter. He is survived by a younger sister, Sara Haigh Porter Hauk (husband Gary Hauk), of Atlanta, as well as two uncles, cousins, a sister-in-law, and a nephew. A memorial service will be held at A.S. Turner and Sons, 2773 North Decatur Road, Decatur, Georgia 30033, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 27. His ashes will be interred next to his paternal grandparents and father in the family plot in Florence, South Carolina, with a few ashes scattered in the surf at Pawleys Island, where he enjoyed spending summers with his family as a child. In lieu of flowers, please consider charitable contributions to the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program, 1762 Clifton Road, Suite 1400, Atlanta, Georgia 20322 (emoryhealthcare.org/veterans); or to the Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation (keepingthebluesalive.org), created by Jimmie’s favorite guitarist, Joe Bonamassa, to provide programs and scholarships for students and teachers to achieve their potential in music.