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.
So whereas Benjamin came out of poverty, Delois knew a much more comfortable life-style growing up. But they both had a strong sense of family. Benjamin was much more serious about life and education, because of the struggles he was experiencing.
It was at college, that Delois first ran into the man that would mold and shape her life for nearly fifty years. Talking about opposites. There was Ben, quiet, serious and very committed to the books as a junior in college. In comes the lively and lovely freshman Delois, who was more interested in a good time, than she was some Algebra books.
Back in those days, they posted your grades on the wall for all to see. Ben came to Delois, to ask her if she had seen her semester grades. Partying Delois, said “why no I haven’t why?” Ben said well I think you ought to go see them. After one look at her grades, Delois knew the partying days had to fade in the background, and from that time forward they both were outstanding students. Love eventually ran its course, and they got married.
I asked Delois, “what was the secret to your being married just 3 months shy of fifty years.” Delois instantly said, “a lot of hard work. Ben was hard to get along with and I was hard to get along with.” I remember the last time Ben spoke at a person’s funeral at the church, and Ben said of the person, “He was the kind of the person that everybody loved and he was easy to get along with.”
Then Ben said, “ I can tell you right now, nobody is going to say that at my funeral.” He and Delois made a commitment to each other to withstand the many battles which life brought their way, and they stood together. For almost 50 years, they stood together. Let’s celebrate with a hand clap for this awesome accomplishment.
Delois testimony is that he was good father, a good husband, a man dedicated to making sure the needs of his family were met. One of the things he did that meant so much to her was to encourage her to try to do things she feared and to go after goals that she did not think she could reach. When she set her heart on a task, he was committed to helping her reach it. They were each other’s pride and his joy, and they understood that the success of either of them was really the success of both of them.
Ben and Delois deeply loved the three children that they brought into the world and the grandchildren they in turn brought to them. You don’t know what a family vacation is until you have tried it the Williams style. Sometimes Ben would keep it a secret of where they were going and how they were going to get there to build up the suspense.
He’d announce the place they were heading and Delois would work out all the details. Their vans and cars have taken them to vacation in 39 of the 50 states. It was during those family moments that they took time to strengthen the bonds of love between them.
Every woman likes to be made to feel extra special by her husband. But Ben was not the go out and search for a gift type. At Christmas you got from him what you asked for. But there was Christmas when Ben lost his title as the Grinch. Delois said, one very special moment they shared was the Christmas in which he surprised her completely by going out on his own, and presenting her with a fox jacket. So she knew the man had it in him, it was just getting it out that was a problem.
If you really wanted to know what love was at a meal, you needed to go no further than a Thanksgiving meal at the Williams’ house. They had more food and dishes than you can imagine on the table. Brian called it a 12 course meal. I have to confess, it put a smile on my face when Delois would call Pastor Toby and encourage her to stop by a get a plate for us. Delois was truly a gifted cook.
Never was a mother more dedicated to her children than Delois was to theirs. If you wanted to see just how feisty Delois could get, all you had to do was to do something or say something negative about Ben, Benita or Bryan. I can tell you now, you were in for a fight. Delois had an unconditional love for her children and her grandchildren. She would never give up on any of them regardless of how bleak a situation might look.
She and Ben were such roles models to their kids in their careers as teachers and administrators that all three kids became teachers. That same spirit for enriching the lives of others through education is now alive in their grandchildren.
God has used this one family to touch the lives of thousands of people in helping them to reach their potential. There are people in all walks of life today, because Delois cared enough not only to teach them, but to love them as individuals as well. She understood Jesus’ call upon her life to go the second mile with her students and with her family. Teaching wasn’t just a job for her, it was her God given calling that God gave to her from the moment she was born in Mississippi.
Her gift of teaching was used not only in the classroom, but also in the church and the community as a volunteer. Thank God for the dedication she has shown, as she has given of herself to others time and time again.
The love Delois has shown for others has its origin in a call that Delois heard and responded to. One day of the words of Jesus touched her heart in which he said, “if anyone wants to be my disciple and come follow after me, let them pick up their cross, deny themselves daily, and come follow me.”
Delois realized that though many people may have thought of her as a good person, she saw herself as a sinner in need of a savior. It was the promise of the Holy Spirit in her life that made it possible for her and Ben to share nearly fifty years together. It was the grace of God that enabled her to walk through the many trials and difficulties she went through. She watched the burial of her parents’ generation, her own generation and the death of her husband and first born son.
My friend, Delois faced death with confidence because she had put her faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Where is your confidence today? Jesus promised her that he was going back to heaven to prepare a place for her and that he would receive her there. What place is being prepared for you today, and who is preparing it?
For those who remain on this side of death, the Bible tells us, there is a time and a season for everything under the sun. The one experience that is common to us all is death. It is as common and as natural as all the other things done under the sun.
The Scriptures tell us that there is a way that seems right to a person, but at the end of it is death. If we are all living in order that we might some day die, it should be of utmost important that we live in such way that in the end our lives would not have been lived in vain.
Everybody here today is one day closer to death than they were yesterday. What grade would God give to us on whether or not we’re living in vain. Whether or not we have lived in vain will not be determined by how much we accumulated in terms of material goods, for naked we came into this world, and naked we go out.
The only thing that we can take out of this world is what we have given away. For that is how Jesus said to lay up treasures in heaven. If we have not loved and have not invested in others, then our living has been in vain.
The Apostle Paul knew that his life was coming to an end even though he had been a faithful servant of Jesus Christ. He did not become bitter that God did not set him free after he had been unjustly condemned to have his head cut off. Instead, he chose to look back over his life.
When he looked backed over his life, he was pleased with what he had seen. He was able to declare in the last book that he wrote, " For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." Paul could see that his living had not been lived in vain.
Brothers and sisters, I submit to you this day that we are here to celebrate the homegoing of Delois Elaine McDonald William’s because her life has not been lived in vain. She has fought the good fight. She has finished the race. She has kept the faith. Now comes her reward.
How many of us live as though death is a million years away from us? How many of us pay more attention to what our hair looks like or our stock port- folio than we do the condition of our souls which is what ultimately counts. We assume that tomorrow will always be there.
Death is significant only because it marks the end of our opportunity to have an affect upon others for the sake of Jesus Christ But death is not something to be feared, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not die but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. Whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in God’s only son.”
Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. For I go to prepare a place for you. Not only has Christ gone to prepare a place for us, He has revealed to us the road in which we should follow.
Jesus tells us that there are but too roads in this life. One way has a wide gate, is a broad road and that the bulk of people travel upon it, but it leads to death and destruction. He tells us the other road has a narrow gate, is very narrow, and that few people travel upon it, but that it leads to life. Jesus himself is that narrow gate. Delois chose to enter that gate. Have you admitted to God that you are a sinner in need of a savior? Have you asked God to forgive you of your sins? Have you invited Jesus into your life? If not, why not?
To those who do not know Jesus Christ, Delois Elaine McDonnel Williams will only be a memory. It may be a good memory, but only a memory. For those who do know Christ, our sister Delois is waiting to meet us on the day the trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are still alive shall rise to meet the Lord in the air.. Oh what a day of reunion and rejoicing its going to be.
