Fannie Ashley Black

Shelby, NC: Fannie Mae Ashley Black, 94, formerly of Chester,died Friday, May 25, 2012 at Wendover Hospice of Cleveland County.A Memorial Service will be held 1:00 PM Monday, May 28, 2012 at First Baptist Church, Chester with Reverend Clay Waldrip and Reverend Joe Roberts officiating.The family will receive friends immediately following the service in the vestibule of the church. Interment will be private. Mrs. Black was born on February 25, 1918 in Ware Shoals, SC. She was a daughter of the late Jesse Thomas Ashley, Jr. and Lillian Florence O’dell Ashley. She was a graduate of Ware Shoals High School, Spartanburg Jr. College and Western Carolina University where she was their first homecoming queen. She was retired from Chester City Schools as an Elementary and Jr. High School Teacher.Mrs. Black was a member of First Baptist Church, Chester where she was the first ordained female deacon, former Sunday school teacher and president of the Bereavement Society and former director of Women’s Missionary Union. Mrs. Black was also a former member of the Variety Study Club and the Palmetto Literacy Society., In 1978-1979 Mrs. Black served as a volunteer teacher in Guatemala having been appointed by the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board. Mrs. Black is the widow of John Ballus “Jake” Black. She is survived by one daughter, Flossie Bonner (Frank) of Shelby, NC; one son, Richard Black (Mary Jo) of Loris, SC; four grandchildren, Alison Dalton (Kevin) of Charlotte, NC, Florence Crawford (Brent) of Ft. Myers, FL, John Black (Leslie) and Richard Black, II (Nichole) allof Loris, SC ; nine great-grandchildren, Evelyn, Mary Bonner, and Clara Dalton, Porter, Lillian and Griffin Crawford and Britton, Jacob and Caitlyn Black and one sister, Thelma Young of Ware Shoals, SC. Mrs. Black was preceded in death by five sisters, Corinne and Nan Ashley, Mary Porter, Ellen Booth and Louise Young and three brothers, Harold, Bill and John Ashley. Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church, Chester, PO Box 518, Chester, SC 29706 or Black-Bonner Scholarship c/o Gardner-Webb University, PO Box 997, Boiling Springs, NC 28017 Online condolences may be made to the family at www.barronfuneralhome.com.