The Wellington Leader November 12, 1970
Mrs. A. T. Lewis, Church Leader, Dies Thursday
Mrs. A. T. Lewis, a charter member of the Nazarene movement, died at 4:35 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, in Harmon Memorial Hospital, Hollis. She lacked but 10 days of being 81 years of age. She lived in the Dodson area more than 60 years, from 1904 until she moved to Hollis five years ago.
In 1908 the Nazarene movement reached this area, and Mrs. Lewis' father, the late Rev. T. M. Cornelius, became one of its ministers. Later, the family helped to organize the Church of the Nazarene at Dodson, and she was a charter member. Although she was devoted to all phases of church life, her greatest love was for its mission work overseas, an interest she had throughout her adult life, and it centered on the country of Korea. Since the Korean War, Mrs. Lewis supported two missionaries and two orphans in that nation. One year she made more than 300 dresses for little girls and sent them to Korean orphans.
Long ago she gained a reputation for her fine quilting, and this she did for women throughout the Panhandle and Western Oklahoma. But every cent she received, members of her family recall, went to Mission fields. They recall, too, that in 1952 Mrs. Lewis pledged a specific sum of money for this purpose, for there were prospects of a good cotton crop. But a late summer hail stripped every stalk and left the grown bolls on the ground. She was dismayed, but the warm Indian summer days opened the bolls. Using a garden rake, she and Mr. Lewis raked these open bolls from the ground until she had $1,100, enough to cover her pledge.
Mrs. Lewis was the former Addie Mae Cornelius and was born in Ellis County Nov. 15, 1889. She came with her parents to Headrick, Okla., shortly after the turn of the century. In 1904, they moved to the Dodson area, six years before the town was founded. She attended school at Arlie, and other schools near Dodson that ceased to exist many years ago. She and Mr. Lewis were married while she was a student in one of these. He preceded her in death 11 years ago.
Funeral services were conducted at the Church of the Nazarene at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Officiating were the Rev. Howard Smith, pastor, the Rev. Jean Atkinson and the Rev. Slbert Shumaker of Dodson. Burial was in Dodson Cemetery under the direction of Kelso Funeral Home. Pallbearers were Tommy Lewis, Carthel Lewis, Buddy Cornelius, Walter Camp, Fred Covey and Art Kane.
Mrs, Lewis is survived by two sons, Emeral Lewis of Holdenville, Okla,, and A. D. Lewis of Hollis; two sisters and a brother, Mrs, George L. Lewis and Farris Cornelius of Wellington, and Mrs. Beverly Lewis of Willow, Okla. There are three grandchildren.