Ada Irelle Wilkinson

Ada Irelle Fowler Wilkinson of Mooresville, NC went home to be with the Lord on Monday, August 13, 2012, after a wonderfully fruitful 90 years. She successfully survived kidney cancer for five years and continually praised the Lord for His mercy in leaving her here to witness to the unsaved and to be an encouragement to those in need. She spent her last days at home comforted and cared for by her family.

The family will receive friends at Lady's Funeral Home in Kannapolis on Wednesday from 5 to 7:00 pm. The funeral service will follow officiated by Reverend Sam Crisp at Lady's Funeral Home Chapel on Wednesday at 7:30 pm. Entombment will be beside of her husband in Carolina Memorial Park Mausoleum.

Mrs. Wilkinson was born on July 4, 1922 in Royston, GA. Her family moved to Kannapolis where she completed school at A.L. Brown High School in the class of 1941. She was employed by Cannon Mills in the weave room until she married Walter Melvin Wilkinson in 1944. At that time, she joined him in working to create a successful farming and dairy business based in Cabarrus County. In 1965, they achieved their dream of living in a new home on their farm in Iredell County and resided there until their deaths.

Mrs. Wilkinson is survived by her daughter, Ellen Abercrombie and husband, Wayne; her son, Lester Wilkinson and wife, Janice; grandchildren, Leigh Wilson, Christopher Wilkinson and wife, Katherine, Elizabeth Griffin and husband, Archie and Emily Herrero and husband, Juan. She has been blessed by her great granddaughters, Ainsley Wilson and Maggie Griffin. She is also survived by three sisters, Venita Steele, Virginia Stickler and Joyce Parson.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Walter Melvin Wilkinson; her parents, Lee Fowler and Estie Jordan Fowler; two sisters, Allene Smith and Fannie Lou Carter; and her four brothers, William Fowler, Alfred Fowler, Jesse Lee Fowler and Edward Fowler.

Mrs. Wilkinson was known as a hard worker not only on the farm and vegetable garden but at her job as a nursing assistant and for her church, Kannapolis Church of God, where she was a member. She had a personal ministry of encouragement for those at her church and her friends at the nursing homes. She made calls, sent cards and visited to let them know that they were special to her.

Memorials may be sent to Hospice & Palliative Care Lake Norman, 705 Griffith Street, Davidson, NC 28036.