Bonnie Earline Hudgens

Bonnie Earline Hudgens, 86, passed March 5, 2026 surrounded by friends and neighbors after a brief illness. Bonnie was preceded in death by her brother Buis David Hudgens, her father Wesley Pearlie Hudgens and her beloved mother and artist Buelah Maggie Read Hudgens. 

Bonnie is a native of Nashville. She attended MTSU on a full trumpet scholarship. She loved humor and performed in Nashville’s Noel Ball Show where she lip-synced songs at the Sock Hop. She worked as a district manager at Genesco. Later, she lived and worked in theater in the Northeast, working for the YWCA in summer camps teaching tennis. She returned to Nashville to care for her mother where she ran two restaurants in Whites Creek - Smokin’ Charlie’s and Earthman’s which was voted in the top five hamburgers in Nashville. 

She loved gardening, cooking, tennis, people, and maybe animals a little more than the rest. She was part of the Nashville music scene when it was just a crazy group of hippies playing in run down bars. She loved Whites Creek! 

She is survived by her Goddaughter Gina "Cookie" Gold, 3 cats and stray people she collected along her journey.

 A celebration of life will be held Saturday, March 28 at Joelton Hardware, Feed, and Farmacy from 10:00 am to noon with live music and open mike to share Bonnie stories.