James E Cross

Mr. James Elmer Cross, 97, life-long resident of Giles County, died Saturday, January 29, 2005 at Maury Regional Hospital. Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. at Oakes & Nichols with Rev. Steven Van Hooser officiating. Burial will be in the Lynnwood Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Monday from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the Lynnville United Methodist Church Building Fund, P. O. Box 127, Lynnville, 38472. Notes of sympathy may be sent to www.oakesandnichols.com. He was born July 27, 1907 to Lonnie V. Cross and John Ella Chapman Cross on Chapman Ridge in Giles County. He attended schools in the Hebron, Yokley and Campbellsville communities. During his early life, he drove a one-horse peddle wagon selling wares in rural Giles County. Mr. Cross lived and farmed most of his life in the Yokley Community. As well as farming, he graded tobacco for 19 years at the Columbia Tobacco Warehouse, worked for the Texas Eastern Gas Line and in the construction of the Columbia Reservoir. Mr. Cross possessed a deep and abiding Christian faith since the age of 13 as a member of Taylor's Chapel United Methodist Church where he served as Superintendant of Sunday School and as a member of the Administrative Board for many years. Since Taylor's Chapel closing, he was a faithful member of the Lynnville United Methodist Church. Since 2003, he maintained a residence at Alterra Sterling House and many visitors came to gain from his vast genealogical knowledge and of persons and places of the past. He married the former Onice Lorene Pinkelton October 7, 1925, who died in 1993. Survivors include two daughters, Sarah Butler Posey of Columbia and Bertye (Glen) Brown of Pulaski; a son, Hillard (Colean) Cross of Nashville; three grandchildren, Tommy Brown of Valamosa Springs, Alabama, Tammy (David) Alsup of Pulaski and Ralph (Tracye) Butler of Murfreesboro; two step-grandsons, Mike (JoAnn) Posey of Tullahoma and Claude (Joan) Posey of Birmingham; three great-grandchildren, Christy Brown of Mississippi, Raleigh Anne Butler and Rory Butler of Murfreesboro; four step-great-grandchildren; special friends, Daphine and Gene Caruthers of Columbia. He was preceded in death by three half-sisters, Lucille Hickman, Aileen Russell and Raydean Beasley. Active pallbearers are John Worthman, Eugene Holman, Charles Gibson, Jr., Gary Sims, Edwin Lovell, Edgar Hamlett, Jr., Melvin Hindman, Rayburn Hickman. Honorary pallbearers Claude Posey, Mike Posey, L. W. Russell, Roger Barlar, A. E. Caruthers, Bill Peden, Ray Pinkelton, Roy Pinkelton, James Hardison, Sidney Ralston, W. S. Wilburn, Jr., Miller Pinkelton, Clifton Kelley, Kenneth Ingrum, John Hickman, Cleveland Holder, W. L. Beasley, Billy Carpenter, Billy Dean, men of the Lynnville United Methodist Church and employees of Alterra Sterling House.