A Celebration Of LifeMrs. Ida Mae Lawton Gary
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| VISITATION: Sunday, May 4, 20256:00-8:00 Post MeridianBlunt Chapel CME ChurchSmoak LaneVarnville, South Carolina 29944
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FUNERAL SERVICE: Monday, May 5, 202511:00 Ante Meridian
Huspah Missionary Baptist Church105 Hoover StreetHampton, South Carolina 29924
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Rev Lilly Holmes, Pastor, Blunt Chapel CME Church, OfficiatingElder Jetson R. Maness, EulogistPresiding Elder, Charleston-Columbia District
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Ida Mae Lawton Gary was born November 25, 1934, to Willie Joe and Rosa Lee Lawton in Varnville, South Carolina. She departed this life on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Ida Mae attended North District Training School in Varnville, SC and joined Blunt Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church at an early age. When Ida Mae married her husband, Rev. Willie Walter Gary, Sr., a minister, she fully embraced being a pastor’s wife and supported her husband ministering and traveling together in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida. Ida Mae saw God as the true source of her strength. She trusted God and loved praying and calling on His name. She cherished serving God and participating in any church activity. She taught her children to do the same. On the district level with the CME Church, Ida Mae was active with the Minister’s Spouses Department and the Missionary Society. Occasionally, Ida Mae would be invited to speak at a ladies meeting. When these opportunities arose, Ida Mae diligently studied her Bible and prayed so that she could share what God wanted her to share. After her husband’s retirement from pastoring, the couple returned to Varnville to care for Ida Mae’s aging mother. At that time, she welcomed the opportunity to once again become active in her home church by serving the Sunday School, the Stewardess Board, the Missionary Society, the choir, and the clothes closet and anywhere help was needed. Many things brought great joy to Ida Mae’s life: being a seamstress and making all her daughter’s Easter outfits, cooking, baking cakes, learning to quilt, learning to fish, creating jewelry, becoming a nurse to sick family and friends, and shopping. While she enjoyed all these things, her greatest joy in life was being a devoted wife to her husband, raising her six children, and watching her grandchildren grow up. She absolutely loved driving to spend time visiting and laughing with her children and grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, Rev. W. W. Gary, Sr.; a son, William H. Gary; and a daughter Cynthia E. Jones. She leaves to cherish her memories her children: Son, Willie W Gary, (Juliette) Philippines; Daughter, Beverly J Major (Ronald), Anderson, South Carolina; Daughter, Linda G Russell, Charlotte, North Carolina; and Daughter, Marilyn Y. Headen, Stony Brook, New York; Her siblings: Brother, Willie Lawton, Jr., Varnville, South Carolina, Brother, Thomas Lawton, Varnville, South Carolina; Sister, Susan Whetsell, Morristown New Jersey;17 grandchildren; 28 great grandchildren; a host of nieces, nephews, and cousins.
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