Henry "Hank" Grady Higgins III

Henry Grady Higgins III, "Hank", was born on October 2, 1948, in Rome, Georgia, and passed away on February 13, 2025, in Canton, Georgia, at the age of 76. He was the son of Henry Grady Higgins, Jr. and Katie Hardin Higgins. Hank spent his entire life in North Georgia, sharing the last 54 years with his wife, Marilyn Wright Higgins, whom he married on May 30, 1970. Hank will be remembered differently by all of those he left behind. Marilyn described him as “Creative, Knowledgeable, Loving”. She commented on how he would often hide his feelings with stubbornness but loved big. She tells stories of his love for mischief, which started when he was a kid, including a time he was walking with his father “Dah” and kept looking at his watch. As they walked along, he finally started counting down and then busted out laughing saying “every alarm clock in the store we just left just went off”. His kids (Anita, Chris, Carey and Katie) remember him as loving and loyal. Their memories include working with him all day to set up an old-school stereo system and then testing it with Harry Chapin’s “30,000 Pounds of Bananas”. Standing on the bench of a 1976 Dodge Dart driving down the road listening to Jim Croce on an 8-track. Him reading the Sunday comics to them before bed. Him always working on a car, or a home improvement project or being out of town because he was traveling all over the world (literally) working. He loved the ones who came into his life through marriage or lifelong friendships (Alison, Tanya, and Ryan). They remember his wit, gentleness with his grandkids and the time he spent with them. One favorite story was a time when they were waiting for a fireworks show to start, and he pointed to fog off in the distance. He told them that it wasn’t fog, it was rain, and it was headed their way. He was right, not long after they all got drenched. No matter how much he loved his kids, when he started having grandkids he took the love into overdrive. Price, Carleigh, Jackson, Sam and Wyatt called him “Poppa” and he had no problem wasting time, money and energy spoiling them. He’d make them Nutella and marshmallow toast for breakfast, take them on nature walks and could turn a refrigerator box into a clubhouse, doll house and ice cream shop, then become the first, best and only customer of the shop. But what they all mentioned was the love of art and drawing he instilled in all of them. He was an incredible artist, who could draw anything you put in front of him. Hank was a proud veteran who spent 20 plus years in the Georgia Air National Guard, before retiring and becoming a service engineer for several different companies. He understood things like binary coding when few other people did, how to service industrial presses and how to fill plastic Coke bottles at high speed without them fizzing over. He prided himself with the fact his work had taken him to Asia, Europe, South America and most parts in between. Hank was a Christian man, hated iced tea, and would choose Pepsi over Coke for some reason. He was always reading or drawing or giving such great advice as “Never get in a battle of wits with an unarmed person”. Hank will be missed in the years we all have on earth before we join him in Heaven, but know he is rejoicing with Nana and Dah (his parents), Granny and Papa (his in-laws), Aunt Elaine (his sister) and others who have gone on before. Hank's funeral service will be on March 28, 2025, at 12:30 PM at Darby's Funeral Home. Burial to follow at Georgia National Cemetery. Visitation begins at 10:30 AM. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Joseph’s Storehouse Ministry at GraceLife Church in Marietta. The Funeral Service will be live-streamed at: https://vimeo.com/event/5023755

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Henry "Hank" Grady Higgins III

October 2, 1948 - February 13, 2025