Obituaries

            Margaret Jane Childs Lindsey (born March 3, 1919) left this life on January 6, 2013, two months before her 94th birthday, surrounded by family and confident of the promise of eternal life. To her family and many friends across the country she was known by her "sparkling eyes smile" and the strength of her life long faith which was manifested in her every word and deed throughout her life.

            Beyond her love of her Redeemer and her willingness to share all that she had was her commitment to family and her lifelong love of learning. Her roots were deep into her community and she loved sharing the many stories of family in New England, North Carolina and Lincolnton that had been passed to her from her mother and grandmother and which she had discovered herself with research over a forty year exploration of her genealogy and the history of Lincolnton. She was a descendant of the Childs family that came to Lincolnton, North Carolina during the mid 1800s from Massachusetts by way of New York and Western North Carolina and the Childs union with Swiss, German, and English families. She was able to weave these genealogical facts and many interesting family stories with her understanding of history in a way that gave continuing life to many whose contribution to the history of Lincolnton might have been lost. Her stories helped her children and their children understand better the rich history of their state, region and nation through generations of war and peace. The communications associated with her avocation brought her in contact with many people across the country. The cataloging of data and the recoding of her discoveries were activities that she enjoyed until the time of her death.

            She was raised in the family home on North Cedar Street in Lincolnton which was built in the early 1920s by her father and mother. Her mother, the late Lorena Wiseman Childs, lived in the home until her death in 1981 and her father, E.T. Childs, Jr.  walked to and from the home everyday to his work at the Seaboard Railroad station and was very active in the First Baptist Church which his grandparents had helped to establish. After her graduation from Lincolnton High School in 1936, Margaret Jane attended Meredith College in Raleigh, N. C. where she graduated in 1940. While teaching for a year at Lincolnton High School and working at the Lincoln County Health Department for a year she enjoyed summer work with children's activities for the North Carolina Baptist Convention and became convinced of her calling to  full time Christian educational service. With help from the North Carolina Baptist Women's Missionary Union and a family friend in Lincolnton, she was able to obtain her Master's Degree in Religious Education at the Carver School of Missions at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky where she met her husband Dr. Harold Lindsey while he was preparing for his ministry.

            Margaret Jane Childs married Harold E. Lindsey at the First Baptist Church in Lincolnton on July 12, 1944 and after he finished his doctorate in theology they served churches in Okmulgee, Miami, and Shawnee, Oklahoma before moving to the First Baptist Church of Waco, Texas in 1954. In 1961, they returned east were Dr. Lindsey served as Secretary of Evangelism for South Carolina Baptists in Columbia, S.C., Director of Metropolitan Evangelism for the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, President of North Greenville College in Tigerville, S.C. and as Director for the Development of Ministries for the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in New England before they retired to the family home on North Cedar Street in Lincolnton in 1982.

            Back in Lincolnton, Margaret Jane helped Harold to organize Lincoln Pastoral Counseling Center before he resumed his active ministry as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincolnton. Over the next 25 years, until health issues forced them  to move to Atlanta to be closer to family, she supported her husband in his continuing service to dozens of churches in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia through interim ministries.  He helped each of those congregations in their search for new church leadership. She was always his closest adviser and confidant as together they sought to find God's will in their life together. In their "retirement" Margaret Jane and Harold read together. Early in their marriage she began reading to him on long car trips. Their tastes ran from theology through Emerson to current politics and biography. At her 90th birthday a partial list of books that she had read to him since retirement exceeded one hundred serious works.

            Her most significant contributions to her family and others were her love of God, her sense of the importance of education and her sense of the importance of Christ to the orientation of a life of service to others. She is survive by two sons, H. Eugene Lindsey, Jr. of Wellesley, Massachusetts,  Edgar T. Lindsey of Saint Simons Island, Georgia and two daughters, Margaret Jane Jenkins of Birmingham, Alabama, and Laura Anne Coffey of Acworth, Georgia. Laura and her family provided loving care that helped Margaret Jane's husband, Harold, extend their life together at home until her death. At the time of her death they were reading Robert Caro's multi-volume life of Lyndon Johnson.

            Margaret Jane is also survived by 13 grandchildren spread across the country and currently 11 great grandchildren all of whom will sorely miss the individual attention and concern that she showed each of them and their spouses and the spouses of their parents over the years. She was the center of a family where each member knows that that they were never forgotten and were truly blessed to be the recipients of a love that had no boundaries. Her love was always supportive and it was impossible to do anything that would separate one from her concern. Each family member always knew that they were remembered in thought and in prayer everyday by this woman with a sharp mind, with sparkling eyes and a loving smile and with endless caring for all that arose from a life spent in service to others, prayer and study searching for the will of God.

Her funeral will be 2:00 pm on Saturday, January 12, 2013 at the First Baptist Church in Lincolnton with the Rev. Dr. Stanley Spence officiating.  Burial will follow in Hollybrook Cemetery.  The family will receive friends from 6:00 until 8:00 pm on Friday at Warlick Funeral Home.