BRENDA PRIDGEN WILLIAMS
Nov. 8, 1950 - July 18, 2009
MOUNT OLIVE -- Brenda Pridgen Williams, 58, of 59 Coniston Drive, Rochester, N.Y., died Saturday.
A native of the Beautancus community near Mount Olive, she was one of 12 children born to the late John and Ethel Williams Pridgen. A graduate of North Duplin High School, she earned a bachelor of arts degree in business education from Campbell University and was a certfied public school teacher in New York.
She had served on the faculty of Stratford Business College in Atlanta, Ga., and was director of development at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester.
She had been a field interviewer for several statistical gathering agencies including Research Triangle Institute, Westat, and the National Opinion Research Center,
Named Honorary Alumnus of the Baptist Missionary Training School in Rochester in 2005, she earned her civilian pilot's license in 1979.
Having been the spouse of a minister, she enjoyed travel and his appointments took them to various locations in New York, Wisconsin and Illinois. A participant in hurricane relief projects and mission trips, she was involved in youth development programs in all churches in which she and her husband served.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday at the church of her childhood, the Bear Marsh Missionary Baptist Church of Beautancus. Burial will be in the John Pridgen Family Cemetery on the lands on which from which she came, and unto which her remains will return. Participating in the service will be her husband, her children, and her brothers-in-law, the Rev. Paul Rose, the Rev. Gerald Garris and the Rev. Mel Williams.
She is survived by her husband, the Rev. Kenneth Williams, of the home; a son and daughter-in-law, Adam and Molly Williams of New York; a daughter, Erin Williams and Jonathan Thrall of New York; a grandson, Gavin; four brothers and sisters-in-law, William Harper and Marcia Pridgen of Spring Hill, Fla., Charles and Jo Pridgen of Beautancus, David Pridgen of Utah, and Clark Pridgen of Beautancus; five sister and brothers-in-law, Norma and Bob Smith of Baltimore, Md., Nancy (Mrs. Bob) Holzworth of New Bern, Mary Linda and Tommy Sutton of Beautancus, Betty Sue and the Rev. Paul Rose of Beautancus, and Judy and Bill Kelly of Raleigh; another brother-in-law, the Rev. Gerald Garris of Dudley, husband of deceased her sister, Marjorie Garris; and many nieces and nephews.
In addition to her parents and sister, she was preceded in death by a little brother, Robert Morris Pridgen.
The family will receive friends at Tyndall Funeral Home in Mount Olive this evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and at the Pridgen homeplace at other times.
Flowers are welcome, or memorial gifts may be made to First Baptist Church, 175 Allens Creek Road, Rochester, NY 14618. A memorial service will be held in Rochester at a later date.
A Tyndall service.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on July 23, 2009 1:51 PM