Charles T. Kinsley’s Wife Sue Turns 90 Years Old

 Sue Don Peel Kinsley was born in Jonesville, Louisiana, May 12, 1931, the third of five children. She and her family moved to Baton Rouge in the mid-1940’s for her father’s work. In Baton Rouge, she graduated from Istrouma High School and then went on to Hammond to attend and graduate from Southeastern Louisiana College, where she was a chee.  It was there she met her future husband, Charles T. Kinsley, Sr., who was attending Southeastern on a basketball scholarship.

Sue says she vividly remembers her first meeting with Charlie Kinsley at the Student Union on the Southeastern Louisiana College campus (now, since 1970, named Southeastern Louisiana University). There was a card game going on with several students, including hers, at the Student Union and he joined in. 

They dated for awhile but, she says, not that seriously. In 1951, Mr. Charlie Kinsley was drafted into the Army for the Korean War, and they lost track of each other. However, when he was discharged from the Army, he returned to Southeastern to complete his college degree. 

He wondered if Sue Don was available to date, or had she gotten married while he was in the service. So, he got a friend of his to phone Sue Don’s mother and find out if she was still single. By then, Sue Don had graduated from college and had taught P.E. at Hahnville High School. Then, she moved back to Baton Rouge and had started teaching at her old high school alma mater, Istrouma.

Relieved to find out that Sue Don was still single, Charlie asked her out for a date. As they say, the rest is history. 

On June 4, 1954 the two were married at Istrouma Baptist Church at the old Tecumseh Street location in Baton Rouge. 

Since Mr. Kinsley had been raised Episcopalian and she had been raised Baptist, the couple decided to come to a compromise on their church affiliation and joined the Methodist Church to raise their children.

The couple’s attachment to the Central community came in the fall of 1955 when Mr. Kinsley became part of the Central HIgh School faculty, having been recruited to coach the varsity men’s basketball team. He eventually also served the school as a teacher, counselor, and principal. 

Sue Don continued her teaching career. After leaving Istrouma High, she taught at Istrouma Junior High, then Park Forest Elementary. She taught Physical Education at each of these schools. In 1973, she came to Central Middle School where she taught Louisiana History and eventually became the Librarian. She stayed there until her retirement in the early 1990’s. Tragically, in the spring of 1974, Mrs. Kinsley lost her beloved husband very unexpectedly after an apparent heart attack. Mr. Kinsley was only 45 years old.  It was a great loss to Central High School and the Central community.

Every November Central High hosts a basketball tournament in Mr. Kinsley’s honor. The last tournament, held in November 2020, was the 42nd Annual Charles T. Kinsley Memorial Basketball Tournament.

The Kinsleys moved from their home in Glen Oaks in 1965 to their home in Central, where Mrs. Kinsley still resides today. 

Sue Don has three grown children, all of whom have families of their own — daughter Susan Kinsley Kolb. son Charlie Kinsley, Jr., and daughter Kathy Kinsley Edgens. All of her children still reside in Central. 

She has seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.