Willie Mae (Coates) Alston

  Willie Mae Coates Alston, the eighth of eleven children, and the last surviving child of the late James T. and Mattie Hart Stancell Coates, was born on Thursday, July 14, 1921.
       Willie Mae was educated in the Northampton County School System (Coates School).  At an early age, she accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior, was baptized and she united in Christian Fellowship with Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, Seaboard, North Carolina, under the Pastorate of Rev. Dr. C.C. Staton.  She loved her church and attended when her health permitted.
     Early in life, Willie Mae met and married the late Reginald Taylor Alston.   They were blessed with five children.  She later relocated to New York City, where she was employed in various Domestic and Home Health Care positions. New York became her home for almost fifty years, before she would return to North Carolina to care for her siblings that needed her.   
       On Wednesday, June 27, 2018; while at Northampton Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Jackson, North Carolina, God in his infinite wisdom, called Willie Mae home to rest. "Come ye, blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you."  Her seeds are well sown, her service on earth is now complete and she now experience the victory and triumph of eternal life.
       In addition to her parents and beloved husband, Willie Mae was also preceded in death by: four children, Reginald Jr.. Russell, Bobby Bernard and Carolyn Irene; two grandchildren, Tommy Alston and James Louis Alston, Jr. and her siblings, Rosa, James, Agnes, Matt Fenton, Eugene Wilson, Jessie Virginia, Mary Jane, Evelyn, 'J.T.' and Mattie Naomi.
        Precious memories, Oh how they will forever linger in the hearts of:  her loving son, James L. Alston, Sr. (Vaseta); a nephew, she loved as her son, Rev. Linwood F. Clark; two nieces, she cherished as daughters, Martha Buffaloe and Vivian Milton; nine grandchildren, Sherrie Alston, Veronica Alston, Pamela Alston, Vincent Alston, Jamal Saleem (Oneka), Bobby B. Alston Jr., Michelle Cunningham (Zack), Mayme B. (Randall) Middleton and Mortimer Ashton Tann Jr.; fourteen great-grandchildren; eighteen great, great-grandchildren; two sons-in-law, Mortimer Tann and Waverly Holloway; one sister-in-law, Annie Lee Coates; three generations of nieces and nephews;  a host of other relatives and friends.

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