ALLEN B. BRYAN
Died Aug. 29, 2010
ROBERSONVILLE -- The Rev. Allen B. Bryan, retired Free Will Baptist minister, passed from this earthly life Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010, at Martin General Hospital.
A memorial service was conducted at First Baptist Church in Robersonville, N.C., Tuesday, Aug. 31, with Dr. W. Burkette Raper of Mount Olive and Dr. James O. Hagwood of Robersonville conducting the service. A graveside service was held at Oak Grove Free Will Baptist Church Cemetery in Bladenboro, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 1, with Dick Hester, a nephew of the Rev. Bryan, and the Rev. Larry Greenwood, pastor of Oak Grove Church, conducting the service.
Pallbearers were grandsons, Jonathan Bryan, Andy Bryan, Bryan Cochran, and nephews, G.C. Bryan, Grady Dowless and Freddie Edwards.
The Rev. Bryan, born in 1920 in Bladenboro, N.C., was the son of the late Henry and Georgia Bryan.
He attended Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, Tenn., and was ordained to preach the gospel in 1945. He gave all of his adult life to the Free Will Baptist denomination, serving as pastor at more than 15 churches in eastern North Carolina during his 65 years of active ministry. Northeast Free Will Baptist Church in Mount Olive, N.C., was one of those.
The Rev. Bryan was active in numerous denominational organizations, helping to establish Free Will Baptist mission churches in Arizona while he was director of the Free Will Baptist foreign mission board.
He had made his home in Robersonville for the past four years ,and attended First Baptist Church in Robersonville, but maintained his membership at Northeast Free Will Baptist Church in Mount Olive and in the Eastern Conference of North Carolina Free Will Baptists.
The Rev. Bryan also had retired from Belk of Goldsboro, and had retired from The Family Shoe Store of Goldsboro in 2005.
The Rev. Bryan is survived by Edgar and Carolyn Bryan of Washington, N.C.; Howard Bryan and Mary Bryan of Statesville, N.C.; Jo Ann and Randy Banks of Annapolis, Md.; Peggy and Al Cochran of Robersonville, N.C.; Ben and Wanda Bryan of Statesville, N.C.; stepson, Gene Reich of Goldsboro, N.C.; grandchildren and their spouses, Jonathan Bryan, Cindy and Tony Huffman, Kathy Stephenson, Andy Bryan and fiancée, Amber Johnson, Anna and Griffin North, Sarah and Brandon Johnson, Bryan and Sandy Cochran, Emily Bryan, Lindsey Bryan and Rachel Bryan. The Rev. Bryan is also survived by three great-grandchildren and a sister, Ethel Lee Dowless Guyton of Bladenboro, N.C.
Preceding him in death were wives, Ann Hester Bryan and Louise Reich Bryan.
The family requests that memorials be made to the Mount Olive College's Bryan-Hester Memorial Endowed Fund, 634 Henderson St., Mount Olive, N.C., 28365.
Arrangements were by Biggs Funeral Home of Robersonville, N.C.
Condolences may be made at edward.casper@sci-us.com.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on September 15, 2010 1:48 PM