A large part of Mike Hudgins’ life is about looking to the future, but also remembering the past.
He serves on the Madison board of aldermen to help build a bright future for the city. He is also the funeral director for Natchez Trace Funeral Home, where he helps families and friends reminisce on the good times with their loved ones.
When he isn’t serving the community in either of those roles, you can find Hudgins living in the past as he attends a concert for one of his favorite late ‘70s or early ‘80s hit bands or travels the country in one of his classic cars.
“Pontiac Trans Am, that was the car to have as a kid that I never could have,” he said.
He and his wife gather with a group of approximately 150 each year to travel to a destination in their classic cars.
“We vacation to different places across the county in our cars,” he said. “We’ve been to Sarasota and Jupiter, Florida; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Mt. Rushmore; Albuquerque, New Mexico. We’re driving 40-year-old cars across the country.”
Hudgins has owned several different cars, but he likes to stick to the Pontiac Trans Ams, from ’77 to ’79.
“I actually bought my son an ’81 for his first car to drive to high school, because that was something that I couldn’t do,” he said.
For Hudgins, the hobby lies in the search for a new vehicle. He buys them to keep for a while. Eventually, he sells the car to buy a new one.
“You would be surprised at car shows or just out in public how often people will ask if you want to sell,” he said. “It’s always for sale, so yes. I simply turn around and find another one. I’m online, always looking for the next one. For me, that is exciting.”
Usually around April or May the group sets off on their road trip. He found the group in 2009 online.
“There’s always a car show at the end of the day,” he said. “Either at the hotel or at the restaurant that’s been scheduled. There can be as many as 150 to 200 cars.”
People travel from all over the country and from several countries to take part in the event. Hudgins said he and his wife have met others from Canada, Australia and England.
They have made many friends from these rides. This week, they will set sail on a cruise with 14 others they met through the classic car group.
“I think as time goes on and I age, I’m drawn to the music of my youth,” he said. “When there’s a concert close by, we will drive to go see it.”
He has driven all over the south to see bands like Def Leppard, Journey, Kiss, Motley Crue, Boston, Kansas and Styx.
“It provides a way to get away every now and then,” he said. “We serve many, many people. It’s been a good life, but it has not always been easy. I wear many hats and sometimes you have to remember which one you have on. Each hat has one commonality and that’s helping the people during a time of difficulty.”
Hudgins said both of his career choices have come with a stereotype, both in politics and in funeral service.
“If you have a heart for something and you’re honest with people and you do your best, then there is no stigma attached,” he said. “You can’t always fix everything and make everyone happy, but I still try.”
Hudgins, a native of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, graduated with honors from Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham, Alabama, with a degree in mortuary science.
He moved to Madison in 1999 and has been there ever since. His career brought him to the area.
“We decided we wanted to stay in the area as long as possible,” he said. “It’s now become home.”
Hudgins and his wife Theresa have two children, a daughter Kaelon and a son Gavin.
“Madison was actually my first internet search,” Hudgins said. “When we were deciding to move, the internet was still new. It was certainly new to me. Dial up, landline connection.”
The information he found online about the area was eventually what led him to move.
He is a licensed funeral director and embalmer in Mississippi and Alabama and has been the funeral director licensee in charge of Natchez Trace Funeral Home since its inception in 2003.
“I think it was fate,” Hudgins said of how he got into funeral service. “I don’t know that I really wanted to do anything else. I was an art student all the way through elementary and high school, and even some classes in college.”
When he was 13, he remembers traveling with his family to attend the ribbon cutting of a family friend’s new funeral home.
“Ironically, with the big funeral home that they had, there wasn’t a place for us to stay in their home and there were no hotels in that town, so we stayed in the funeral home,” he said. “So, I got to see the inside workings, and I think I was drawn to it more through the artistic side.”
He heard stories of what goes on in the embalming room and the preparation of the deceased.
“Curiosity, I think, set in,” he said. “I was determined to learn it eventually. Ironically, I went to work at that very funeral home 15 years later.”
He and his wife Theresa are also the owners and operators of My Pets At Rest Pet Crematory, where they offer professional cremation services to pet owners.
“It’s an interesting career, but it fits my family and what we do in serving the community and taking care of those who have moved on, whether it be human or a pet,” he said.
In 2005, Hudgins was first elected to the Madison board of aldermen.
“I think it’s a matter of whether we recognize opportunities or whether we accept the challenge,” Hudgins said of his decision to run.
When he first moved to Madison, he and his wife purchased their first home and after the first year, it flooded.
“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I called the city. They told me to contact the county. I contacted the county, and they told me to call the city. We went through this round and round conversation.”
Hudgins got tired of going back and forth, so he went to Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler to resolve the issue.
His home flooded again the year after, and again the year after that. With the growth of the city came some issues that needed to be resolved.
“The mayor called me and said the city is growing and that the census said that we have to create new wards,” he said. “At the time they had five and were going to seven. I just happened to move into one of the areas without representation.”
Butler reached out to Hudgins about running for that seat on the board of aldermen.
“She complimented me that I was one of the very few people who had the right to be ugly to her, but I wasn’t,” he said. “She liked my demeanor and the way I handled things. She asked me if I had ever considered politics. And I hadn’t.”
As time went on, Hudgins said the thought stuck with him just as it had when he was 13 and curious about funeral service and he decided to run.
“I just thought it was really second nature that it would extend my ability to solve other people’s problems,” he said.
