The proud little community of Little Dixie — but also folks across Henderson County, Kentucky, the nation and even the world — remain in tearful shock following the tragic death of Susie Givens on Saturday morning.
Givens, 67, perished in a fire at her home on Pritchett-Crooks Road just 2½ months after the death of her husband, Dorris Givens, 77,who died from complications of COVID-19 on Dec. 28, 2020.
“As of right now, the cause of the fire was an explosion, but the cause of the explosion is under investigation,” Bryan Coghill, chief of Corydon Civil Defense Fire & Rescue, said Monday afternoon.
She is survived by daughters Randa Givens Gary and Dawn Givens Caton and their families.
Givens is remembered as a pillar of her community and her church, but also as a pioneer of industry whose company, Givens International Drilling Supplies Inc., did business with customers around the globe.
“Susie Givens was a magnificent woman,” declared Melissa Clements, executive director of the United Way of Henderson County. Clements said she “grew up a field away” from the Givens home and practically “grew up in Susie’s house … She was like a mother to me.”
“She was empowered to do wonderful things,” Clements said, fighting back tears. “Her reach to help the community — not just Little Dixie but all of Henderson … She was the best of the best.”
Allen Sutton had known Givens since his family moved to his late grandfather’s farm in the Dixie community in 1961 when he was a youngster and lives there today.
“We adjoined farms with her daddy, Randy Powell,” Sutton said.
“I’m looking at the house she grew up in,” he said during a phone interview from his home. “I see it across my wheat field.
“I remember meeting her at church. We go to same church today (Dixie United Methodist Church). “It’s been a relationship of a little less than 60 years. We were lifelong friends — grew up together. I always considered her my best friend, and she considered me her best friend, or in the top five. We dated off and on, but we were more friends. She was like a sister to me.”
Instead, Sutton said he stood up at both of Givens’ weddings and helped get her acquainted with Dorris Givens, her second husband. In that wedding, “I was the ‘matron of honor,’ is what she called me,” Sutton said.
The Givens honeymooned in the mountains of Tennessee. While hiking one day, they got separated. State police and park rangers searched for hours for her. Dorris Givens “was terrified,” Sutton said. At one point, Givens even phoned his mother-in-law back in Dixie to see if she had heard from Susie; she had not.
“He said, ‘The whole time I thought, ‘How am I going to tell her daddy I lost his little daughter on our honeymoon?’” Sutton said.
Finally, searchers found her that night. “She was fine,” Sutton said.
It was not the first time she had a close call. When she was younger, she and Sutton used to take turns mowing the church yard, and she lost several toes in a mowing accident.
“But she overcame that and never missed a step,” Sutton said. “... She overcame a lot of things. She was always there for everyone. So respected. Just a super girl.”
Diane Hughes, who is Melissa Clements’ mother, was another lifelong friend of Givens. They were among several youngsters who were taught to play piano and organ at church, and played for Sunday worship services for many years.
“Even in her declining health – she had several back surgeries —when someone was not able to play organ, she would play the organ,” Hughes said. “Or she would play the piano.” Indeed, Givens had been scheduled to play “Amazing Grace” on the organ at church on Sunday.
She said Givens will be remembered for a lifetime of service to others.
“She was a pillar of our church and our community,” she said. “She gave of her time and resources. The number of gallons of blood that were given because she organized blood drives was enormous over the years.
“She had a sixth sense” about people’s struggles, Hughes said. “She knew when you needed help. She would call. Our daughters were the same age and grew up together. She was a mom to my daughter (Melissa) just like all the children. She would call during bad times and struggles and deaths. The amount of food (Givens arranged for or prepared herself) for bereavement dinners at Dixie (United Methodist) was enormous.
“She devoted time to vacation Bible school. The amount of food she brought and the resources for vacation Bible school (was huge)” as were the number of sugar cookies she baked and brought to children at church on Easter and at Christmas, she said.
“She was, in the true sense of the word, a servant of God,” Hughes said. “She was His servant. No one will ever know how many people she helped when they needed it. She was a mom to our children. She was a mom to everyone. She never expected anything in return. She did it out of the goodness of her heart … She was a positive person. I don’t think I ever saw her without a smile on her face.”
“She will be missed deeply. It is a loss we will not be able to replace.”
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Others knew Givensthrough her long career in the drilling industry — first as Thompson Bit owner Don Thompson’s right-hand person, then as she operated her own global drilling supply company.
Givens International shipped drill bits, drill tubes, lubricants and other supplies to customers drilling for water or mining for coal, gold and copper in more than 60 countries. In 2007, Givens International was featured in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s magazine article concerning foreign trade. Her company also received export awards from the U.S. Department of Commerce and Kentucky World Trade Center.
“I got to know Susie through her work in the community and in my chamber of commerce work,” Henderson County Judge/Executive Brad Schneider, a former Henderson Chamber president, said in a statement. “She was an impressive person. On the one hand she was like a classic Southern wife, mom and grandma. Very gracious, very positive. Always smiling. She treated every kid in Little Dixie and her church congregation as if they were one of her own.
“But then there was this other side to her, that of savvy businesswoman, that I really respected as well,” Schneider said. “She was president of Givens International Drilling Supply, a company she founded in 1994. That industry is certainly a man’s world but she thrived in it.
“What a tough lady,” he said. “She’d suffered from some health issues in the last year or so, and she lost her husband to COVID in December. But she seemed determined to let none of those things keep her down.”
Givens served on numerous boards, and in December 2015 was appointed to fill the remainder of her father’s term on the Kenergy Corp. board after the death of Randy Powell, a 40-year member of the boards of Kenergy and its predecessor, Henderson-Union RECC.
Tisha Shipman of Drilling King International in Texas said Givens was a mentor and inspiration to her.
“When I came into the drilling industry about 20 years ago, there were probably about 10 women working in sales in the DTH (down-the-hole drilling) industry in manufacturing and distribution, a very small group of women, even today,” Shipman wrote in an email. “Susie was a very welcoming customer for me and she helped me a lot during those early days.
“She could hang with the guys when it came to knowing the drilling industry! She’s definitely a go-to in our industry, she also employed women, teaching and training them in the drilling industry.
“She was always so generous too, one of my fondest memories of her was that she sent me an afghan when I was expecting my last child; now (that daughter is) 14, but I still have that blanket that she made and sent to me,” Shipman said.
“She wasn’t just a customer to me. She was a friend, and really more like family. She always took time to check in and ask about family before getting down to business. These last few months after having lost her husband — her faith was so strong and though I know she must have been hurting, she was always positive and upbeat, always an encouragement.”
Such friends will long remember Susie Givens’ warmth and humanity. But those who were on the scene in the aftermath of the catastrophe at her home on Saturday morning will for a time be haunted by what they saw.
“When I got there — I tried to prepare myself for what I would see — but I could not prepare myself for what I saw,” Clements said.
“When I first got there, I couldn’t even tell there was a house there,” she said of what she believes was an explosion and fire.
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Corydon Civil Defense Fire & Rescue posted at its Facebook page late Saturday night that early media reports of the incident having been caused by a gas leak at the house “are not confirmed” and that the fire was still being investigated by Corydon Civil Defense, the Kentucky State Fire Marshal’s office and public gas utility investigators.
Corydon Civil Defense posted on Facebook that units arrived at approximately 10:47 a.m. Saturday “to find the residence fully engulfed in flames and one person unaccounted for, along with a detached garage on fire, and a grass fire … Once all three fires were knocked down and contained, firefighters were able to locate and remove the individual.”
Besides Corydon, units from the Cairo Volunteer Fire Department, Deaconess EMS, the Henderson City-County Rescue Squad, Niagara Volunteer Fire Department, Waverly Fire Department and the state fire marshal’s office were summoned to the scene along with chaplains from the Corydon and Smith Mills’ departments who came to pray for emergency responders and family.
“The outpouring of friends who showed up (at the scene of the tragedy) was just beyond belief,” Sutton said. “You felt so useless because you couldn’t do a thing except to stay out of the way of the firefighters.”
Sunday’s service at Dixie United Methodist “was basically all for her. There wasn’t a sermon,” he said.
“I’m just horrified,” Sutton said. “But she was a wonderful individual and will be missed so much.”
