Wendell Hackle

Wendell Hackle, farmer, loving and beloved brother, uncle, cousin and friend who held friendship in highest regard, passed from this life Sunday morning, August 13 in the care of Ogeechee Area Hospice's in-patient facility. He was 71.

Wendell grew up on a farm in the Evergreen Community in Candler County, where he learned the value of hard work and where his neighbors were all family. A 1970 graduate of Metter High School, he had made “Hackle makes the tackle!” a refrain of announcers when he played football on Friday nights. After a year at Georgia Southern College and working for a time at a fiberglass tub and shower factory where he became a line foreman, Wendell started farming full-time with his father nearly 50 years ago.

With his drive to modernize and make farming profitable, Wendell, with his father and later also his brother Randy, expanded the operation from the family place onto leased lands to grow cotton and peanuts at about 20 locations in three counties. Dedicated friends – as they are much more than employees – have continued this operation through Wendell’s recent months of illness.

A fan of various forms of racing, in younger years he attended NASCAR races from Daytona to Talladega and once owned a stake in a dirt-track car with a local driver. In recent years he and Randy and their friend Jerry fielded hotrod garden “mini tractors” in area tractor pulls.

A believing Christian, Wendell grew up at Evergreen Baptist Church and later became a member of New Life Baptist Church. He is preceded in death by his parents, Alvie J. and Alvena Hackle, and his brother Randy Hackle and sister-in-law Barbara Hackle.

He is survived by his brother Al Hackle and his wife June, of Claxton; sister-in-law Sheryl Hackle, of Statesboro; honorary sister Mary O. Waters, of Cobbtown; and generations of nieces and nephews.

Kennedy Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Visitation will be held Thursday, Aug. 17 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. at Kennedy Funeral Home’s Hooks Chapel in Metter. The service will be held Friday, Aug. 18 at 11 a.m. at Evergreen Baptist Church with interment to follow in the Evergreen Cemetery

Pallbearers: Kenneth Andrews, Duncan Carpenter, Brian Hackle, Justin Hackle, Clayton Hackle, Kyle Hackle, Eli Holloway, Michael Holloway and John Thrift.

Honorary pallbearers: the dedicated farming team of Gustavo, Robert and Steamboat and all friends in farming and agribusiness.

In lieu of flowers the family would like donations to be made to Ogeechee Area Hospice in Statesboro, Ga.

Kennedy Funeral Homes, Hooks Chapel of Metter, is in charge of the arrangements.