Obit – Mr. Lester “Coot” Dillehay
Mr. Lester “Coot” Dillehay, age 92, of Mount Juliet died peacefully following a period of declining health at his Hillview Drive home at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon August 15, 2020 surrounded by his family. He was under the care of Alive Hospice who pronounced him deceased at 5:12 p.m.
Mr. Dillehay’s pastor, Eld. Jeff Patterson and his brother-in-law Eld. Jerry Shrum will officiate at the Wednesday morning August 19th funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Burial will follow the 11 a.m., services in the East section of the Will Gregory Cemetery in the Sycamore Valley Community.
The family will receive friends at Sanderson in Carthage on Tuesday from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. and on Wednesday after 9 a.m.
The last surviving of six children of the late Herlin Luster Dillehay who died at the age of 103 on November 13, 1998 and Eva Alberta Taylor Dillehay who died at the age of 97 on August 3, 1988, he was born Charles Lester Dillehay in the Defeated Creek Community on August 15, 1920.
Siblings preceding him in death was his only sister, Opal Ruth Dillehay Green who died at the age of 94 on June 20, 2018 and his four brothers, Fletcher Roosevelt “Potch” Dillehay who died at the age of 78 on June 30, 1996, Jewell Lee “Dutter” Dillehay who died at the age of 77 on March 25, 1999, James Taylor “Teefer” Dillehay who died at the age of 78 on February 14, 2009, and Raymon Shayne “Rid” Dillehay who died at the age of 86 on March 11, 2012.
Mr. Dillehay was also preceded in death by a son-in-law, Danny Wright who died July 4, 2020 at the age of 70 from cancer.
He was united in marriage to Sycamore Valley Community native the former Evelyn Doise Shrum Kittrell by Missionary Baptist pastor, the late J. C. Austin.
Mrs. Dillehay’s first husband and the father of her two sons, Ellis Kittrell, died in a farming accident in the Carver Hollow in the Cartwright Community at the age of 26.
Mr. Dillehay was educated at the former two room Defeated Elementary School where he was Salutatorian of his eight grade class and was an outstanding basketball player.
In 1991 he retired from the Yellow Freight Systems where he had been employed for over thirty years.
He was saved as a teenager and was baptized into the fellowship of the Friendship Primitive Baptist Church in the Defeated Creek Community where he was a devoted and supportive member.
Surviving in addition to his wife Evelyn over fifty eight years are four children, Joan Dillehay Wright of Lebanon, Kevin Dillehay of Mount Juliet, Ricky Kittrell & wife Yvonne, Jeff Kittrell and wife Jan all of Lebanon; seven grandchildren, Keith Wright and husband John Muise of Lebanon, Kyle Wright and wife Mary Fay, Taylor Dillehay all of Lebanon, Whitney McGill and husband Joe of Memphis, Michael Kittrell and wife Tammy of Mount Juliet, Jennifer Bolton and husband Dane of Mason, Ohio, Robyn Bailes of Chattanooga; sixteen great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren and his only surviving sister-in-law, former Smith County Circuit Court Clerk Mettie Jane Anderson Dillehay of the Pavilion in South Carthage.
The Dillehay family requested memorials to either the Friendship Primitive Baptist Church or the Will Gregory Cemetery Mowing Fund.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
