LATHAN A. WIGGINS SR.
Oct. 3, 1917-Feb. 13, 2010
" ...there is a prince and a great man fallen this day ..." II Samuel 3: 38
MOUNT OLIVE -- Lathan Almon Wiggins Sr., 92, Red Hill/Scott's Store community near Mount Olive, died Saturday morning at his home.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mount Olive Ward. Participants in the service will be bishop Richard Brown, president Joel Hancock and brother Joseph Scott. Interment will follow in Wiggins-Price Cemetery.
Born Oct. 3, 1917, he was the son of the late Henry Roland and Lillie May Price Wiggins.
He was a member of the first graduating class of B. F. Grady High School in 1928 and was the class valedictorian. Being a former Grady student, he held the distinction of having been the very first president of its Beta Club.
A local Mormon church leader, he served as the first district president in Eastern North Carolina for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Having been a longtime member of the Albertson Ward, he was assigned to the Mount Olive area, where he was instrumental in the founding of the Mount Olive Branch in 1964, and oversaw its building construction in 1970.
He delivered countless numbers of eulogies and funeral messages through the years as friends and neighbors called upon him, and he was a living legend to his faith and to the local history of his community and surrounding areas.
An entrepreneur, he established Red Hill Fixture Co. in 1958, today still operated by family members as Red Hill Distributors, which manufactures school furniture. He had operated a grocery store and an appliance store, and had founded the Almon Wiggins Cabinet Co. Also, he had been a car dealer.
He was active in state and local political arenas, and had been a longtime supporter of the Boy Scouts of America.
An avid music maker, in years past he had appeared in Radio City Music Hall and was broadcast from coast to coast. For his entire life, he had been an entertainer of sorts, always sharing his musical talents with others.
He is survived by six children, Douglas Lyndell "Lindy" Wiggins Sr. and wife, Judy, of Mount Olive, Geraldine Faye "Geri" W. Deaver and husband, Robert Lee "Bob" Deaver, of Kinston, Major Elwood Wiggins of Mount Olive, Steve Wiggins and wife, Hazel, of Mount Olive, Susan Elizabeth Wiggins of Mount Olive and Chester Markel Wiggins and wife, Vickie, of Mount Olive; 28 grandchildren; and 46 great-grandchildren.
He had been married to Pauline Jane Swinson Wiggins for more than 70 years when she passed away in 2008.
A son, Lathan A. "L.A." Wiggins Jr. preceded him in death, as did three grandchildren, Judy Lynn Wiggins, Lathan Almon Wiggins III and Marcus Almon Wiggins, and all of his brothers and sisters.
The family will receive friends at the cultural hall of Mount Olive Ward tonight from 7 to 9, and at other times at the home of Lindy and Judy Wiggins, 207 Crest Drive in Mount Olive.
Online condolence messages may be expressed at www.tyndallfh.com.
Arrangements are with Tyndall Funeral Home of Mount Olive.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on February 16, 2010 1:49 PM