Emily Langston

LANGSTON, Emily Jane Huie

Emily Jane Huie Langston, (92), of Atlanta, GA, passed away peacefully on February 25, 2024 at her 63-year home on Melante Drive in Atlanta. She had just watched her online church service from Peachtree Road United Methodist Church before ascending to heaven. Emily lived a full and uber-productive life, from being a 1950s/'60s/'70s raising-the-kids mother and wife to a 1980s-forward jet-setting international traveler and travel agent.

Emily was born on January 17, 1932 in Jackson, Tenn. to her parents Addie Freeman Huie and Jack Curtis Huie. Although she started in Tennessee, Emily would take a Rand McNally tour of the South, living in Kentucky (Mayfield), Florida (Orlando) and Louisiana (New Orleans), before ultimately arriving in Atlanta and attending Clark Howell, O'Keefe, Girls High and Grady High School. In all, Emily padded her worldliness by attending 13 different schools before graduating from Grady, always making A's and being a class leader along the way. Emily continued to lead her peers as the president of her AO Pi sorority at UGA, where she made lifelong friends who still got together regularly over the next 70+ years. At UGA, she asked a guy named Leroy from Greenville, SC to an AO Pi event, things percolated from there, and…..fast forward, they were side-by-side last Sunday, watching that final church service. In the years in between that first UGA date and that final church service, there was some lineage: three kids, Leigh Clack, Atlanta, Steve Langston, Atlanta, Libby Langston, Missoula, MT; and five grandkids, Austin Clack, Carlton Clack, Walker Langston, Leela Langston, Addie Langston. In fact, Emily and Leroy celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last year – 70 years of Emily's proper style mixed with Leroy's, well, you could hear anything style! Perhaps Emily's last words to Leroy in 2024 were, "We had a good run together."

After getting her Journalism degree from UGA and then marrying Leroy at St. Mark Methodist Church in Atlanta in 1953, Emily and Leroy spent some time in Austin, Texas where Leroy had Air Force duty before returning to their true Southern roots and settling for the duration in Atlanta. Emily's early years as a wife and mother were full: military wife, driver and class mom at Rock Springs Elementary, North Fulton High School (she was co-president of the Booster Club), Marist, Bagley Park (never missed a game), Baskin-Robbins, Girl Scouts, Miss Gainey's Piano, Colony Square Ice Skating, plus some good adult stuff like Garden Club, Bridge Club (to get all of the neighborhood gossip), Sewing Club (where the cherished family quilts got started), Swim Class, Antiquing Class and German language class. The German class must've had some long-reaching tentacles because Emily thereafter gained the moniker of "Mutti," which is pretty much all that her grandkids ever called her. And there was always dinner at the table every night growing up that Emily (sounds kind of like Emeril) prepared, with everybody sitting in their exact same seats every night.

Once her children were older, and after taking earlier car trips to places like the New York World's Fair, the San Antonio World's Fair, the Montreal World's Fair, the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Golden Gate Bridge, Emily hatched the travel bug into a profession and became a travel agent for 30 years with Buckhead House of Travel and Atlanta Company Travel. As part of her duties as a travel agent, Emily had to go see the world, so she visited every continent except Antarctica, and gained countless travel memories. While traveling, she documented her hotels, restaurants, day excursions and destinations in detailed fashion, and shared that travel wisdom with hundreds of clients, friends and family. She even got to use her UGA Journalism acumen and wrote articles for travel magazines. In the 1980s, Emily and the family got a flat in London, which they visited approximately 200 times over the years. Although she liked cities and bustling activity, Emily Loved the outdoors, and found great solace in Montana where daughter Libby lives and at the family farm outside Covington, GA.

In her later years, Emily became an iPad demon, and shared fun with friends regularly playing Scrabble, Words With Friends and other games. For several years, Emily and Leroy never missed a Peachtree Catmen softball game with Steve and Leigh's kids playing at Northside Baptist Church. And she shared precious last-year moments with her all-star team of caretakers – Mattie, Rebecca and Jackie.

Emily is survived by husband, Leroy; her three kids; five grandkids; and half-sister Jackie Martin (Dallas, TX).

Emily's life will be celebrated on March 30, in Atlanta, with a gathering for toasts, prayers and sharing lasting memories.