Willow “Faye” Bray Owen Holland, 77
Willow “Faye” Bray Owen Holland, age 77, of Lafayette, Tenn., passed away June 21, 2009, at Knollwood Manor. Funeral services were conducted Wed., June 24, 2009 from the Alexander Funeral Home Chapel with Brother Bruce Kirby officiating. Jerry Owen served as honorary pallbearer. Larry Sutton, Joe Dale Owens, Kenneth Moss, Jimmy Holland, Richard Bell, Joe Fred Tucker, and Jack Tucker served as active pallbearers. Interment followed in the Bethany Cemetery.
Willow Faye Bray was born on Feb. 16, 1932 in Macon County, Tenn. to the late Louis Ellis and Minnie May Tucker Bray. She was married to the late Claudie Ray Owen on June 18, 1947, sharing twenty-eight years together and raising five children, Claudie Ray preceded her in death on Dec. 15, 1976. On Jan. 17, 1980, Faye was married to her second husband, Carlos Holland, better known as “Shorty” sharing twenty-four years together, he preceded her in death on Sept. 26, 2004. Besides her parents and husbands; one brother, Jack Bray, also preceded her in death. Faye worked in home health care for several years; she was an office manager for Kimberly Home Health for over five years and P.H.C. Home Health for four years. She retired from the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency when her health began to deteriorate. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and friend to all who knew her. Faye was very talented and enjoyed quilting, crocheting, and all kinds of crafts. Her family and friends enjoyed going to her home to eat. She would always have the table full of food, especially her Apple Dumplings. Faye and Shorty enjoyed fishing and coon hunting together. She would take her crocheting with her, and if she was tired of fishing, she could crochet while Shorty fished. They raised tobacco and farmed together, most all the time. Faye was saved around the age of thirty-two years at Sunrise Missionary Baptist Church; she later joined Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, where she remained a member for the last thirty years. She is lovingly survived by; sons, Dennis (Alice) Owen of Red Boiling Springs, Roger (Blanche) Owen of Manchester, Tenn., daughters, Martha (Junior) Jenkins of Gallatin, Tenn., Wanda Owens and Sandra Lawrence both of Lafayette, half-brothers, Charles Bray of Westmoreland, Tenn., W. L. King and Larry Bray both of Lebanon, Tenn., step-son, Jim Holland of Lascassas, Tenn., step-daughter, Margaret Dotson of Lafayette, Jo Ann Bell of Somerset, KY, sister-in-law, Dora Dean Bray of Glasgow, KY, seven grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren, and a host of extended family and friends.
