I hope you were blessed by reading the Christmas devotional last month. This Christmas was anything but restful for my family. My father-in-law passed away on December 21st after a period of declining health. The morning after his funeral, my father had a heart attack and died two hours later. The funeral was on New Year’s Eve, which would have been his 75th birthday. Our moms lost their husbands, we lost our fathers, and our children lost both grandfathers, all in one week with the funerals only four days apart. But God is faithful. We know these were the days He ordained before the world began for their earthly lives to end (Psalm 139:16). My tribute to both of these men was to write their obituaries.
The Rev. Dr. J.L. Williams
The Rev. Dr. Joseph Louis “J.L.” Williams, 74, died December 28, 2016 at Alamance Regional Medical Center.
He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina on December 31, 1941 to the late Rev. Clarence Edward Williams and the late Edith Crouse Williams. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Patricia “Patt” Joynt Williams.
J.L.’s family heritage was rich in the church and in missions. He lived life to the fullest and gave himself to serving the Lord with reckless abandon. His spare time was spent with his kids and grandkids doing gardening, yardwork, woodworking, pond work—basically anything out of the house.
He often quoted John Wesley, who said we should be ready to “preach, pray, or die at a moment’s notice.” And he told his family for years, “Do not mourn my death. I will never be more alive!” J.L. is certainly alive with the Lord forever.
Upon graduating pre-med from Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, J.L. received his Master’s at Duke University Divinity School in comparative world religions, and his Doctor of Theology from Luther Rice Seminary in contemporary counter-Christian cults.
After he and Patt moved to Burlington to work with youth through the YMCA, J.L. founded The New Directions, an interracial singing group that ministered all over the US and overseas through the 1980s.
As the ministry transitioned to full-time mission work in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, J.L.’s passion was to pour himself into cross-cultural partnerships, to equip strategic Christian leaders with practical and spiritual tools to reach the unreached for Christ. Whether it was preaching, teaching, writing, mentoring, agricultural projects, self-support initiatives, helping orphanages, etc., J.L. was absolutely relentless in serving Christ by serving others.
Survivors, in addition to his wife, include his daughter Patricia “Trish” Williams Glover, husband Joe, and children Victoria, Jack, Emily Elizabeth, and Rebekah; daughter April Williams Atkins, husband Mark, and children Matthew and Emma; son Joseph Williams, wife Susannah, and children Nathanael and Abigail; son Jonathan Williams, wife Julie, and children Luke, Owen, and Joy Yael. He is also survived by his siblings, Ed Williams and wife Becky, Hannah Thompson and husband Keith, and Judy Baer and husband Charlie, as well as scores of extended family members. He was predeceased by a sister, Barbara Williams Miketta.
The family will be receiving family and friends on Friday, December 30th, from 5–7pm, at The Lamb’s Chapel in Haw River. The funeral service will also be conducted at The Lamb’s Chapel on Saturday, December 31st at 2pm with Pastor Brian Biggers officiating. Graveside committal will follow at St. Mark’s Church Cemetery in Burlington.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to J.L., Patt & Friends, PO Box 4066, Glen Raven, NC 27215, and Feed the Hunger, PO Box 2347, Burlington, NC 27216.
Marty Morris
Herman Martin “Marty” Morris, Jr., 77, died December 21, 2016 at the Alamance Caswell Hospice Home of Burlington.
He was born in Graham, North Carolina on January 6, 1939 to the late Herman Martin Morris, Sr. and the late Nell Morris. He was husband to Sue Stancil Morris of 55 years, who survives.
Marty had an idyllic childhood in Graham, hunting, fishing, and delivering the newspaper. At the age 15, he became an Eagle Scout. By his sophomore year in high school, the family moved to Wilmington, NC where he continued to enjoy the outdoors.
Upon graduating from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1962, Marty was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force, and graduated from the Defense Language Institute and Defense Intelligence School in 1963. He was accepted into the Attaché Service and was stationed in Clovis, New Mexico and Tel Aviv, Israel. He received an honorable discharge as a First Lieutenant in 1966.
Marty and Sue then settled in Charlotte, NC where they raised their two daughters and he worked in sales with Lassiter/Riegel/Rexham. They retired to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 1996 and were members of Buxton United Methodist Church in Buxton, NC, until they moved to the Village at Brookwood in Burlington in 2014. Marty was an avid fisherman who loved fresh and saltwater fishing, cooking, reading, and financial investing.
Survivors, in addition to his wife, include his daughter, Caroline Ashley Morris McCulloch and son-in-law Martyn McCulloch of Skelmorlie, Scotland; daughter Susannah Wesley Morris Williams and son-in-law Joseph Williams of Burlington, NC; grandsons Lee, Chris, Patrick, Nathanael, and Jason; granddaughters Meaghan and Abigail; and a sister Pegge Morris Davis of Chapel Hill, NC.
The funeral service will be conducted at the Rich & Thompson Chapel in Burlington on Tuesday, December 27th at 2pm by Chaplain Jeff Knudson with the family receiving friends after the service at The Gathering Place at The Village at Brookwood.
Memorials may be made to Hospice and Palliative Care of Alamance-Caswell, 914 Chapel Hill Road, Burlington, NC 27215, and Feed the Hunger, PO Box 2347 Burlington, NC 27216.