Lillie Hanks Willis, Rapides Parish Louisiana
Submitter: Randy Willis

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As a young boy and teen-ager she poured Jesus into me! Randy
Willis She married my grandfather and namesake Randall Lee Willis
(b. Mar. 20, 1886; d. May 14, 1940)  on January 11, 1914. (He was
named after his father's commanding general in the Civil War,
Gen. Randall Lee Gibson.)  She was the daughter of Arthur Allen
Hanks and Mary Stark.  Mary Stark had traveled by covered wagon
with her parents, John M. Stark and Marie Deroussel, to Branch,
Louisiana.  Mary Stark often spoke of the panthers screaming in
the woods of Louisiana, she said they screamed "just like a women."
Grandmother Lillie moved, with her parents,  between Lecompte and
Forest Hill, Louisiana (near the present-day intersection of IH
49 and LA 112) from Branch,  at age 11.
She was a strong believer in Christ and was a staunch Baptist.
I remember her deep reverence for the Lord.  I also, remember
walking into the church sanctuary with her one day, where the
pastor was teaching a  Sunday school class.  He looked up from his
notes and asked,  Mrs. Willis "what does Christ do with our sins,"
and without hesitation she said "He throws them as far as the east
is from the west."    She was a "Proverbs 31 women." I loved 
her with all my heart, and still do.