Lois Sawyer Stembridge of Tryon, NC passed away on March 17, 2004. Born Lois Virginia Sawyer to Shep and Nell Watson Sawyer of Johnston, SC, on January 17, 1912, she completed her music education degree at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, SC. She had a wonderful marriage to Reverend Henry Hansel Stembridge, Jr. of Waynesboro, Georgia. They served together at First Baptist Churches in Barnwell SC, Cedartown, GA, Paris, TN, Paducah, KY, Forsest City, NC, Lynchburg, VA, and San Francisco, CA.

Mrs. Stembridge taught in the public schools of Lynchburg, VA and Antioch and Brisbane in the San Francisco Bay area of California. While there she received her MA in Special Education from San Francisco State University. They retired to Columbia, SC, where she continued to teach and establish herself as an inspirational speaker.

Mrs. Stembridge was a member of the First Baptist Church of Forest City, NC, where she was well-known for her Men's Bible Class in the 1950's. She truly lived her life in gratitude and praise to God. We will miss her deeply.

Their children, Jane Shelton Stembridge and Henry Hansel Stembridge, III reside in North Carolina and Florida. Mrs. Stembridge is also survived by her brother-in-law, Dr. A. H. Spitz, and her sisters-in-law, Katherine Bland Sawyer, Frances Drayton Stembridge, and Rena Bonini Stembridge and many nieces and nephews.


These Forty Days XXXVI
Jane Stembridge

Let life alone.
The spirit at rest in God
Knows all it needs to know.
We live in God and God is love.

And the light which is seen on earth
Is Love's presence
Whose power we know
As grace.

Go to the mountain and see.
Go to the river and hear.
Go to the garden and weep.
Go to the desert and dance.

Go within
Take everything you are
And turn it loose.
Let freedom be. It is.

And peace, the unending gift
Of life in eternal love.