Funeral Eulogy-- Eloise Payne

Eulogy Eloise Payne

By Rick Gillespie- Mobley

Psalm 139:1-18 Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

Summary: : Eloise Payne was an elderly believer who loved her family, had a special bond with her sister, and gave her life to Christ at age 17.

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Ecclesiastes 3:1-3:14 Psalm 139: John 14:1-6

Some of you may recall the great French General Napolean Bonaparte. He was the ruler of France in the early 1800’s who conquered much of Europe. When he was finally defeated on June 18, 1815 at the battle of Waterloo, many of his officers and fighters fled to the United States.

They petitioned Congress to buy some land in Alabama so that they could build a community for themselves. They settled in western Alabama and founded the city of Demopolis. The city had large plantations built around it with a thriving slave trade to keep the cotton industry alive and well. The officials passed a host of laws to keep enslaved slaves in their place.

Slaves were prohibited from selling or purchasing any article or commodity from or to a slave without written permission from their master or overseer. No slave was allowed to purchase alcohol without written consent; if any slave were convicted of assault upon "any white man, negro, or mulatto", the owner would be fined $50; any slave caught running "any horse, gelding, or mule" through town would be subject to fifteen lashes unless the owner paid a fine of $1; any slave caught driving any wagon or cart or driving a horse or mule on or across the sidewalks of the town would be subject to 10 lashes, unless the owner paid a fine of 50 cents.

No matter how oppressive rules may be, some people have a spirit that is going to resist. Eloise and Bessie had a great, great, great aunt who was among those slaves named Aunt Louise. Story has it that Aunt Louise refused to do what her master told her to do.

She told her master, “You will have to kill me first.” But since she was the head of the kitchen and an excellent cook, the master decided to let her be smart and bossy like she wanted. That gene of toughness and speaking your own mind would be passed down for generations to come,

God is amazing. He knew Eloise Payne would be born in Demopolis Alabama long before her parents did and he used Napolean to make to make sure it was there.

The Scriptures tell us “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” God has a plan for each of our lives.

The date was on a Friday, July 29th, 1938, the place was Demopolis, Alabama, the event was that God sent a little bundle of life and potential to William and Louise Payne. She was the fifth of five children to arrive and they called this latest bundle of joy, Eloise. She was affectionally called Ella.

We are here today because that bundle of joy touched our lives in various special and unique ways and that same bundle has returned to the wonderful God who created her. She has completed that cycle of birth, life, death and returned to God. It is a journey that we shall all one day complete.

There are some children that are born as sweet as they can be, and they are as gentle and obedient as your heart could desire. Ellas was not one of those children. She and her brother Sam specialized in getting into trouble. He would wake her up early in the morning with the desire to go and lift some candy. They would leave Bessie out of their adventures because she was too nice and sweet.

It was so hot in Alabama, that candy would spoil and become infected with worms. The seller of the candy would allow the people to look through the candy to see if there were any worms. When worms were found, the seller would allow Sam and Ella to take the candy for free. So they would return home loaded with candy. They did this regularly until their mother put a stop to it after a baby snake was found in one of the bags.

Eloise had the spirit of her great great Aunt Louise in which she did not back down from a fight and she was ready to stand up for herself. Even though she was Bessie’s younger sister, she would be the person willing to fight on Bessie’s behalf as needed. You first had to come through Ella if you were going to fight her sister Bessie.

Yet at the same time, when they went to church, Bessie was to nervous to pray. So Ella would do the praying for her when it came her turn. I guess you could say Ella had some of King David in her in that she was a warrior ready for the battlefield and a warrior ready to go into prayer at the same time.