Melba Littleton Paul

            WADESBORO - On Saturday, January 27, 2024, Mrs. Melba Littleton Paul, 94, went to be with her Lord and Savior while a resident at Harmony Park Skilled Nursing Facility in Wilson, NC with her son and her sisters by her bedside.

Funeral services will be 2:00 PM Monday, February 5, 2024, in the Chapel of Leavitt Funeral Home.

The family will greet friends one hour prior to the service on Monday at the funeral home.

Born May 10, 1929, in a farmhouse in rural Wilson County, NC, Melba Ruth Littleton Paul was the oldest of six children born to C. Thomas and Celia M. Batten Littleton. Her parents were sharecropper farmers, but honest, hardworking people of integrity.

Melba attended the public schools of Wilson County, graduating from Lucama High School in 1947 among the top of her class. She was considered the class poet and wrote the song and poem for their commencement exercises. Forty students, equally divided between girls and boys, comprised the class. They observed their 60th-year reunion in 2007. She was fortunate to have attended all reunions and requested to present a poem of her composition at each reunion.

After working for a year in Wilson, NC, Melba enrolled in Holmes Bible College at Greenville, SC. She graduated in 1951 with a Bachelor of Theology degree. She returned home again and went to work at a department store in Wilson. Later she met, Eugene Kelly Paul of Wadesboro, NC and they married on April 11, 1953. They made their home in Wadesboro where they were active in Christian work and secular jobs to earn a living. Her husband, Eugene, decided he wanted to attend Holmes Bible College and while he did, she taught in the academy department of the school.

Melba pursued further education at Pembroke State College, Pembroke, NC, from which she graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1963. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree and was certified by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction with a Class A certificate to teach Secondary English. She taught for a few years in Robeson and Stanly counties.

In 1967, Melba chose to enter another field of service. She went to work with the Anson County Department of Social Service beginning as a social service trainee and retiring as a social worker III after twenty-five years of service.

Throughout her adult life, Melba has been active in Christian service, both in the pulpit and teaching ministries. As a community service to Wadesboro, she was asked to teach a Community Bible Class organized by Mrs. Kathleen Ratliff in 1993. This class met weekly for seven years. It was a labor of love she enjoyed very much. She had taught the Senior Adult Sunday Class at Wadesboro Church of God for more than 20 years. She often told the class, that when God is finished with her as their teacher, He will have another person for the position.

Since her retirement from The Department of Social Services, Melba worked for several years with The Anson County Board of Elections in both her voting precinct and in One-Stop Voting. She enjoyed this community work.

Melba’s creativity has been expressed in her poetry, of which several poems have been published. Her poetry expresses her view of life, “optimism and hope” and her poems were born out of her imagination and life experiences.

Throughout her life, Melba endeavored to live an upright life and to be a blessing to others. Her walk of life was one of struggle and triumph accomplished through her deep faith in God and her love for His Work. She had a quiet unassuming demeanor which drew others to her for strength and guidance, comfort, and fellowship. The motto of Holms Bible College, her alma mater, was “live for others.” This she tried to do.

Those left to cherish her memory are her son, Anthony Eugene Paul (Tony) who joined their family in 1972, and his wife, Linda; her step-grandchildren, Devin Honeycutt (Heather) and William Honeycutt (Sierra) her step-great-grandchildren, Lillian, Riley, Kenley, Peyton, and Mason and her sisters and brother, Caroline Pittman, LaRue Harris, and Thomas Earl Littleton.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Eugene Kelly Paul, and a brother, Rudolph Littleton.

Sunrise

The sun arose this morning

Dispelling the gloom of night.

The sadness within my heart

Allowed hope to spring forthright.

With the dawning of the day

I could face whatever came.

And hope would never fail me

For the sun would rise again.

Melba L. Paul

Published in Who’s Who in Poetry 2004

            The arrangements are in care of Leavitt Funeral Home and online condolences may be made at www.leavittfh.com