Obit – Mr. Joe A. Grisham
A beloved and respected husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, and friend has departed this physical life to be with the angels in heaven throughout eternity.
Mr. Joe A. Grisham, of the Rawls Creek Community, left his earthly body and awakened in the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at 2:52 p.m. Wednesday afternoon September 23, 2020 at the Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin where he was admitted September 10th. Mr. Grisham was 84.
Saturday afternoon September 26th funeral services were conducted by Pastor Kevin Page and the eulogy was delivered by Ken Spann from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Burial followed the 1 p.m. funeral services in the Garden of Gethsemane at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.
The fourth of five children born to the late Melvin B. Grisham who died at the age of 86 on February 14, 1991 and Alma Doin Proffitt Grisham who died at the age of 78 on April 17, 1986, he was born Joe Alex Grisham in Hodgestown, which is now South Carthage, at the mouth of Hogans Creek on September 8, 1936.
His oldest sibling, Omer High Grisham, preceded him in death on December 15, 2009 at the age of 84.
Mr. Grisham received his General Education Degree before studying business at Cumberland University in Lebanon.
He was saved at the age of 14 and was baptized in the Cumberland River in Carthage by the late Eld. Luther McBride and was of the Pentecostal faith and was a devoted fifteen year member of the Church Alive in Mount Juliet.
He was united in marriage to Lebanon native, the former Linda Gayle Lackey, on July 31, 1976 in Springfield and the ceremony was performed by Robert Crawford.
Anyone who ever knew Mr. Grisham was keenly aware of his deep abiding faith and that his love for his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ were the most important thing in his spiritual life, followed by the love he possessed for his family, fishing and the University of Tennessee sports.
He was a Christian gentleman who lived his faith in God every day of his life evidenced by how he treated all those who came in contact with him.
His life’s working career was in the trucking industry first as Thurston Motor Lines working on the docks and was soon elevated to the position of terminal manager and when Thurston was purchased by Brown Trucking he continued as terminal manager and after their closing he was employed as terminal manager for Old Dominion Freight Line based in Thomasville, North Carolina at their LaVergne terminal and from which he retired in 1998 with a forty year career in the transportation industry.
For a while following his retirement he drove a school bus or the Smith County School System.
Surviving in addition to his wife Linda of over forty four year as are three children, Phyllis Grisham McCall and husband John D. of the Tanglewood Community, Ruby Boley and husband Brian of the Rawls Creek Community, Matthew Grisham and fiancée Katie Ruis of the Rock City Community; eight grandchildren, Shawna Dixon Zody and husband Michael, Breanne Dixon Kintz and husband Stephon, Angel Johnson, Ashley Farley an husband William, Hayden, Jaxson, Kaiser and Avery Grisham; two sisters, Ruth Grisham Givens of South Carthage, Elizabeth Grisham Thomas and husband Billy of the Turkey Creek Community; brother, brother, Pastor Glen Grisham and wife Violet of Lebanon.
“But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered in to the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” I Cor. 2:9
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
