Frances H. McWilliams

Frances Hoam McWilliams knew to bend the twig of a youth toward Christ if you wanted the tree of that life to point heav­en­ward. She taught Sun­day school for decades and was instru­men­tal in orga­niz­ing children’s min­istries in numer­ous area churches.

Her sup­port of Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies gave her evan­ge­lis­tic efforts a world­wide scope. Her home was con­tin­u­ally open to trav­el­ing Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies, and she hosted the ‘World Gospel Mis­sion’ cot­tage at Camp Sychar.

Frances was awarded the Crown of Right­eous­ness, as she longed for Christ’s appear­ing, and her faith became sight Tues­day, August 7, 2012. She was 92.

Born Decem­ber 19, 1919 in Galion to Ernest and Edna (Cox) Rine­hart, she was grad­u­ated from Johnsville High School in 1937.

Frances mar­ried Ernest L. ‘Ernie’ Hoam on May 29, 1942, and dur­ing WWII she worked in the office of HPM in Mt. Gilead. She later worked in the cafe­te­ria of Johnsville Ele­men­tary School for ten years.

She had been an active mem­ber of Johnsville E.U.B. Church, Pleas­ant Grove Com­mu­nity Church, and Cor­ner­stone Com­mu­nity Church, orga­niz­ing chil­dren and youth min­istries in the churches. She became involved with World Gospel Mis­sion, mak­ing trips with them to Argentina and Bolivia, the Amer­i­can South­West and Hon­duras. A life­long Johnsville area res­i­dent, Frances was a mem­ber of Eliz­a­beth Bible Class in Johnsville, Mans­field Chris­t­ian Busi­ness Women’s Club; the aux­il­iary of the Rich­land Mor­row Gideons Inter­na­tional, and super­vised retreats at Camp McPherson.

Frances loved arts & crafts, paint­ing & needle­point, and read­ing Chris­t­ian lit­er­a­ture. She was a true opti­mist, full of love and was an ardent prayer war­rior. She lived a life pointed toward god­li­ness, and exhib­ited the beau­ti­ful and lov­ing fruits of the Spirit.

Fam­ily was always a pri­or­ity to Frances. When her own mother died when Frances was 14, she assumed the role of matri­arch, rais­ing her four younger sib­lings. In adult­hood she became a lov­ing men­tor to her own chil­dren and grand­chil­dren, but also to her sib­lings and nieces and nephews.

An amaz­ing cook, her spe­cialty was desserts. Her leg­endary apple pie won the blue rib­bon at the Mor­row County Fair, and her fam­ily well remem­bers her ‘Red Rasp­berry Dryer Delight.’

She is sur­vived by her chil­dren Car­olyn (Daniel) Davis of Fred­er­ick­town, June (Chuck) Hagan of Lex­ing­ton, Gary (Judy) Hoam of Bel­lville and Don (Nancy) Hoam of Mt. Gilead; grand­chil­dren Laura (Russ) Wan­gler, Mindy (Ger­rit) Pyke, Jim Davis, Ali­son (Kirk) Nolte, Ash­ley (Andrew) Thrasher, Nathan (Ellen) Hoam, Sara Hoam, Anna Hoam, Katie Hoam, Denise Crisman and Deanna Hoam; great grand­chil­dren Emily, Tommy, Ella, Natalie, Jonah, Davis, Lin­coln, Silas, Elsa, Tay­lor, Tan­ner, Takoda, Saman­tha, Shyla, Hanif and War­ren; her sis­ter Eva­lyn (Claude) Likins of Gam­bier; and cher­ished nieces and nephews.

She was pre­ceded in death by her hus­band Ernie Hoam on Sep­tem­ber 4, 1989 and her sec­ond hus­band Don­ald McWilliams on April 11, 2002. Also deceased are her sis­ter Esther (Char­lie) Lanker and broth­ers Low­ell (Alberta) Rine­hart and David (Aldine) Rinehart.

Her fam­ily will receive friends Fri­day, August 10, 2012 from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Lex­ing­ton Avenue Sny­der Funeral Home, where her home-going ser­vice will be held Sat­ur­day at 10:30 a.m. Her brother-in-law Claude Likins will offi­ci­ate. Await­ing the Res­ur­rec­tion, her bur­ial will be in Shauck Cemetery.

Con­tri­bu­tions in her mem­ory to Gideons Inter­na­tional may be made at the funeral home.

Sny­der Funeral Home is hon­ored to serve Frances’ fam­ily, and pri­vate con­do­lences to them may be made online at: www.snyderfuneralhomes.com.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Aug 8 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.