Eulogy For Delois Williams Funeral

Eulogy For Delois Williams Funeral

Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 John 14:1-6 2 Timothy 4:8-10 9/28/2024

Summary: Eulogy for a Christian who loved her family, loved the Lord, and came though several struggles growing up. She was African-American growing up under Jim Crow Laws.

It was the year 1931 and the Great Depression had gripped the United States and was barely two years strong with 8 more years to go. But that didn’t stop God from being concerned about a little black girl in Wayne County, Mississippi who was being delivered into the arms of Creola and Randall McDonald on February 26th, 1931.

They may not have known it at the time, but they had given birth to royalty. Not because of who her parents were, but rather because of the call that God had placed on her life to bless thousands of people over the course of the next 93 years,

Laurel, Mississippi is the place where Delois grew up from the fourth grade on through high school. The events that take place around us in life can either break us or make us stronger. When Delois was in 5th grade, an event in this small town made national news all the way to New York City in the New York Times.

Howard Wash was a 45 year old Negro who had just been convicted of the murder of Clint Welborn. At about 1am that morning after the conviction, a mob of men went to the jail, overpowered the sheriff, and drug Howard Wash to a bridge and lynched him from the bridge on October 17, 1942. It was the third lynching in the state of Mississippi that week. These were the times in the community in which Delois was raised and shaped.

With the hatred that led to the lynching, someone might have asked, can anything good come out of Laurel. I want you to know there was another person that had the same question asked about his home town, when they said, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Yes, out of Nazareth came the king of kings and the Lord of lord. Out of Laurel, came one of the most gifted queens God has placed on the planet.

Delois walked with a certain air of dignity and respect in the way a queen does. She knew how to dress elegantly. In her many stories she told, I remember her telling one about her father and his gun and his confrontation with some racists. He taught his daughters to respect people, but to be afraid of no one. They were to walk with their heads held high because they were equal to everyone.

One of the things I appreciated about Delois was though she had the movements of a queen, she could relate to just about anybody and made them feel at ease. God blessed her to be a people person.

There are some couples that its hard to mention one without mentioning the other. It’s Samson and Delilah. It’s Abraham and Sarah. At Calvary it was Ed & Helena or Emma and Glenn. At Glenville it was John and Jonnie or Ben and Delois. Ben captured the heart of Delois and they both had a strong influence on each other. I’m certain it was the hand of God that brought them together from somewhat different backgrounds.

Ben came into this world facing adversity. First he was born of two teenage parents. His father was nowhere to be seen as a young child. Second he was born in 1930 in the heart of Mississippi with dark skin. That alone was enough to hold you back if you wanted to be held back because both the white folks and the blacks ones did not expect you to succeed. Third his mother soon left and he was raised by his grandmother who knew the meaning of poverty in a way that many of us never ever could. They had practically nothing as far as this world’s goods are concerned.

But she had love in her heart, and she instilled in Benjamin that family is to be there for you even when everything else goes wrong.

When he finished high school, he showed up at Alcorn State, with no money for tuition, but plenty of determination. He had not played football in high school, but he needed a way to eat, to sleep, and to cover tuition. So he went out for the team and was the only freshman to start.

When others were running after passes for the love of the game, Ben was running after his next meal to eat. He was determined to get an education.

Delois on the other hand came from a strong two parent family. Her father was very protective of his girls. Not only was he skilled as a farmer and barber, working for Masonite International would have provided him with a factory job, and in the thirties Masonite International was experiencing an economic boom in the area making interior and exterior doors in Laurel.