Distinguished African American mortician and funeral home director William James Willis was born April 30, 1924, in Tignall, Georgia to the late Reverend James Walter “Son” Willis (1896-1973) and Mrs. Minnie Lee Andrews Willis (1900-1971). His paternal grandparents were Andrew Jackson (1870-1918) and Lula Bell Hill Willis (1873-1949) of Tignall. His paternal great grandparents were Albert (1834-1919) and Ann Willis (1836-1926) of Tignall, Georgia. His maternal grandparents were William and Kathryn Cade Andrews of Tignall. He has been united in holy matrimony to Dorothy Sprowl Willis for 62 years and they are the parents of three wonderful and successful children.

In naming their children, they followed an old tradition in the black community which has its history in the African tradition of naming a newborn child after one of the elders in the community who is/was loved and respected by the parents of the newborn baby. Their oldest child, William James “Jimmy” Willis, Jr. (married to Joyce Harding Willis) is named after his father. William James was originally named Willie James, but officially changed his name while in high school.

Pictured from left to right are Lula Mae Parker, Oree Dee Willis, Geri Pero, Porter Bee Jones, and Cora Willis Andrews. Seated at the head of the table is William James Willis. Their second child, Minnie Ruth Willis Marsh (married to Hubert Andrew Marsh) bears the first name of her paternal grandmother and the middle name of her maternal grandmother. Their third child, Mary Lee Willis Suttles (married to Dony Suttles) bears the first name of her maternal grandmother and the middle name of her paternal grandmother.

William James and Dorothy Sprowl Willis are the proud grandparents of seven grandchildren, Willisa H. Marsh, Hubert Andrew (Andy) Marsh, Jr.(married to Frances), Joycelyn Y. Willis, Juanita E. Willis (married to Craig Hicks), Daryll Tinson, Derrick Tinson, and Daniel Tinson. They are the proud great grandparents of William L. Hicks and Andrea Electa Marsh.

WILLIAM JAMES WILLIS With a father who was a farmer and a Baptist preacher and a mother who was a school teacher, Willie James and his younger siblings, Jo- nas, Marion, and Geri, each day began and ended with fervent family prayer in the Willis household. After breakfast and chores, it was off to school. Usually, the children attended the one- or two-room rural schools where their mother taught school. This enabled her to parent, inspire, teach, and monitor them throughout the day.

She had William James accompany his ailing grandmother Kathryn Cade to Dalton, Georgia, when he was a young teenager. An avid learner, he liked Dalton and the educational opportunities it provided. In Wilkes County, black students had a different school year than the white students. School for black students began in October, after they and their parents had picked all the cotton. In Dalton, he was able to begin school around Labor Day and complete the same full school year as the white kids. His middle and high schools in Dalton were segregated in the 1930s and 40s.

It would be difficult for Rev. “Son” Willis, the “walking preacher,” to do without his oldest son’s help on the family farm on Delhi Road, but God gave him and his wife the desire to see that their children had a better opportunity in life than they had. Reluctantly, they listened to their son’s request to be allowed to remain in Dalton and attend school.

They were aware that there were limited educational opportunities past the sixth grade, one- and two-room schools for young African American students in Wilkes County. In Dalton, William James could be assured of the opportunity to finish high school. His parents understood the importance of getting a good education. He assured them that he would not let them down. He would work hard, pray hard, and write home regularly. They made the decision to give him the opportunity to succeed.

William James did not disappoint his parents. Throughout his life he has been grateful to them and to God for the opportunity he was provided. He would return to Wilkes County each summer to help his parents on the farm and to serve as an apprentice/ intern at T. A. McLendon’s Funeral Home.

One of his first school acquaintances in Dalton was an intelligent and wonderful young lady who sat behind him in his middle school classroom. Her name was Dorothy Sprowl. A friendship that began in their early teen years later evolved into a courtship, then marriage that has produced beautiful children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, a beautiful and loving home, an enduring and profitable family business, respect and standing in the church, community, county, and state, and in his profession. On his many return trips from Wilkes County during his teenage years, he would often speak to Dorothy with enthusiasm and passion about his desire to be a part of the funeral home industry.

In the pre-civil rights and Jim Crow era, William James had already discovered his calling. While opportunities were limited and social and economic conditions for blacks in Georgia and throughout the south were challenging, he had a clear vision of the future. For indeed, his home training, religious and secular education, and educated and Godfearing parents and grandparents gave him a strong self-concept and the confidence that “he could do all things through Christ who strengthens him.”

Well-grounded in the Word of God, William James had accepted Christ at an early age at Pole Branch Baptist Church under the pastorate of Rev. Earl McLendon. He had seen the hand of God at work in his own life, and in the lives of his Godly parents, grandparents, great grandparents, fellow church members, and members of the community. He understood that he had a Godly heritage and that he was expected to work hard, study hard, pray hard, be humble and respectful, and do unto others as he would have them do unto him. He understood that the torch was being passed to him and his generation from the patriarch and matriarch of the African American branch of the Willis family in Georgia, Deacon Albert Willis and his wife Ann Willis down through his grandparents, Deacon Andrew Jackson and Lula Bell Hill Willis; on down through his parents, Rev. James Walter and Minnie Lee Andrews Willis.

The Willis family patriarch, Albert Willis, had been born in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1834 during that awful time in the history of the United States when human beings bought and sold and enslaved other human beings based on the color of their skin. When Albert was eleven, his mother and four(?) siblings were sold to different plantation owners in other states. Young Albert was sold to wealthy Wilkes County plantation owner, James Henry Willis.

A so-called mulatto, which means that one of his parents was white, young Albert required medical attention, no doubt, because of mental and physical aspects of his ordeal. He was assigned duties as a house servant on the Willis Plantation. During that time, it was discovered that this young man, who was born in the vicinity of Monticello, Virginia, had the same wood carving talent and skills as Eston Hemings, the son of Sallie Hemings and Thomas Jefferson of Monticello. A mantle he carved somewhere between 1845 and 1919 is still a point of pride at “Great Oaks,” the old Willis Plantation on Delhi Road. During Wilkes County’s 2009 Fall Ramble sponsored by the Georgia Trust, many citizens and students of history marveled at this great work of art.

Albert Willis became the trusted “man servant” of James Henry Willis. In 1860, then 26-year-old Albert went with 41-year-old James Henry Willis and the Delhi Rangers off to the Battle of Bull Run or the Battle of Manassas in Virginia. Still enslaved, his job was to ensure that food and clean clothing were available to James Henry. When James Henry became ill, Albert took him to the Confederate Army Dispensary in, of all places, Charlottesville, Virginia, and helped to provide medical care for him.

Later that year, upon his medical discharge, Albert helped James Henry return to “Great Oaks” where both men had wives and children awaiting their return. The Willis family oral history tells us that the deep loyalty Albert had for James Henry was because of a blood relationship. What is known is that after the war ended the two men and their families continued to live in close proximity to each other in peace and harmony and their descendants still do so to this day.

We also know that after the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, Albert and his family became the benefactors of land for their personal farming use and for the building of a family church, Trinity Baptist Church, which has stood as a beacon of light in the Delhi Community since 1880.

(continued next week)