Judy Bainbridge

Judy Bainbridge died in Greenville, South Carolina, on 18 September 2026 at the age of 89, shortly before what would have been her 90th birthday on 1 October. Furman University's Provost Office and her Dignity Memorial obituary give that date; some contemporary news accounts, including The Post and Courier, earlier reported 17 September. The cause of death was not made public.

A memorial service was scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on 17 October 2026 in the Garden Room of the Charles E. Daniel Memorial Chapel on Furman's campus. Greenville Mayor Knox White praised her knowledge and joy in telling the city's story, and City Council opened its 28 September meeting with a moment of silence in her honor.

Judith G. Bainbridge was born on 1 October 1936 and grew up in East Orange and West Orange, New Jersey. She earned a B.A. in English from Mary Washington College (now the University of Mary Washington), then an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa.

While studying at Iowa she married H. Leon Gatlin of Raeford, North Carolina. They had one daughter, Susanna (Susie) Townsend Gatlin. Her early teaching included brief appointments at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte and at Queens College before she moved to Greenville.

In 1976 Bainbridge joined Furman University as Director of Educational Services and a member of the English faculty. She taught introductory writing with a reputation for insisting on concise, clear prose, advised students seeking national scholarships, and helped Furman gain national notice for Fulbright, Goldwater, Mitchell and Truman winners. She retired in 2007 as Professor Emerita of English.

From 1999 into the early 2020s she wrote a biweekly Greenville history column for The Greenville News, producing more than 500 installments. She continued writing after retirement and published seven books on local history, among them Academy and College: The History of the Woman's College of Furman University (2001), Greenville's Heritage, Attorneys and Law in Greenville County: A History (2015), and A Short History of Greenville County (2024). Colleagues said she often corrected popular myths about the city's founders and neighborhoods with careful archival work.

After her first marriage ended in divorce, Bainbridge settled in Greenville and in 1985 married Robert W. (Bob) Bainbridge. She remained close to her daughter Susie Gatlin.

Outside the classroom she was active in the Greenville YWCA, the Greenville Urban League, historic preservation efforts and Friends of the Greenville County Library. Friends remembered her sharp memory for local dates and even for baseball statistics, and her willingness to speak plainly in civic debates.

Bainbridge is remembered as Greenville's preeminent public historian of her generation: the columnist whose hundreds of Greenville News pieces introduced readers to Upstate people and places, and the author of seven books that remain reference points for local history. At Furman she is recalled for scholarship advising that launched national award winners and for mentoring students such as Justice Letitia Verdin.

Her blend of classroom rigor, civic service and myth-busting journalism left Greenville with a clearer, better documented sense of its own past. Tributes from city leaders and Furman colleagues framed her work as an enduring gift to the community she adopted and explained.