Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Speight, Olivia Pruden July 18, 1903
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Dorothy Strawhand https://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008405 October 8, 2019, 12:56 pm

Virginian Pilot July 19, 1903
    
                    MRS. SPEIGHT PASSES AWAY    
After Many Years of Christian Service, She is Willing to Meet Her Master -- 
Funeral Today

Mrs. Olivia Speight, relict of the late Rev. Henry Speight, died at the home of 
her son, Rev. J.A. Speight, D.D., yesterday morning at 2 o'clock, after an 
illness of a month.  The health of the deceased began to decline about two years 
ago and she grew weaker with each succeeding day until a sudden depression was 
noticed at the time mentioned above. From this time on her dear ones, who 
watched while sweet life ebbed out, noted with each day that the end of a 
beautiful,useful and active Christian life was approaching.
She was ninety-one years old and had been a lifelong Christian.  She met death 
willingly, and her last audible expression was "I am ready."
The deceased was born in Gates County, N.C.  The most of her life was spent in 
Christian fellowship, she having been a member of the Middle Swamp Baptist 
Church, the oldest church organization in her county.  She was a daughter of the 
late John Pruden and the only living representative of her father's family.   
She was a niece of Rev. Nathaniel Pruden, a Baptist minister, the wife of a 
Baptist minister and the mother of two Baptist ministers, Rev. J.A. Speight, 
D.D., of this place and Rev. T.T. Speight, D.D., of North Carolina;  Mr. J.O. 
Speight, Courtland, Va., a deacon in the Courtland Baptist Church; Mrs. D.E. 
Riddick, of Eure, N.C.; Mrs. Cornelia Riddick, Mrs. Vennie S. Hayes and Mrs, 
Susan R. Crumpler, the latter three deceased.  She was a grandmother of two 
physicians:  Dr. J.R. Speight, of Norfolk and Dr. E.L. Crumpler, of Camden, 
W.Va.  She, as was her whole family, most staunch Baptists and wielded a great 
influence among all with whom she came in contact.  Her influence was such that 
three of her servants became Baptist preachers during and after the war.  Her 
religious life and character were greatly influenced for good by Rev. Luther 
Rice, a missionary of Burma, in 1824, at her father's home.  From this time she 
began and executed a great work for the missionary cause the remainder of her 
life.  Her home became the stopping place of many of the prominent ministers and 
workers in the Baptist church.  Among those who were frequent visitors were Rev. 
Thomas Meredith, the founder of the Biblical Recorder, of Raleigh, N.C; Rev. 
W.T. Wingate, president of the Wake Forest college; Rev. Q.T. Trotman and Rev. 
John L. Reynoldson, who traveled over 60,000 miles in the missionary cause from 
the Atlantic to the Mississippi.  Despite her afflictions her last days were 
full of sunshine and love for the Saviour.
The funeral will be conducted from the residence this afternoon at 4 o'clock and 
the interment will be in Magnolia Cemetery.

 


Additional Comments:
Magnolia

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