Della Sue Morgan Funeral
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Della Sue Morgan
Passed: January 31, 2025
Funeral: February 4, 2025
Location: Hart’s Mortuary Chapel Gray, Georgia
Children: Joe (Judy) Morgan, Barry (Patricia) Morgan, Sheila Morgan Griener.
Grandchildren: Robyn (Wayne) Parham, Shawn (Rebecca) Griener, Andrew (Kathryn) Morgan, Rebecca Morgan
Order of Service
Prelude - Frankie Melton
Welcome, Scripture and Prayer - Randy Darnell
Song: Amazing Grace - Congregation - Matthew Pittman
Eulogy - Randy Darnell
Song - What a Day That Will Be - Congregation - Matthew Pittman
Prayer - Randy Darnell
Postlude - Frankie Melton
I think it’s kind of humorous in a way that we think life should be fair.
I used to make my children so angry when they were small.
They’d whine about something - “That’s not fair.”
And I’d tell them
You want fair?
Wait until October then drive sound on I-75
Look to you left and you’ll see a place where people ride rides,
Eat cotton candy and every now and then a cow will get a blue ribbon.
That’s the only fair I can guarantee you in this life.
From the outside looking in, life wasn’t fair to Della Sue Morgan.
She had a hard and often very difficult life
A life that would literally have driven many people to drink and despair.
And yet not a single one of you would say that was Ms. Sue.
Instead, one of the grand kids said the defining word of her life was faithful.
That’s the opposite end of the spectrum from despair.
I’d like to welcome you to the funeral service of Ms. Della Sue Morgan.
Ms. Sue passed away last Friday a bit unexpectedly for us.
But right on time for the Lord.
I saw Ms. Sue a number of times.
She was always very kind to me and she was easy to like.
But after reading her autobiography and hearing your memories.
She was more than kind - it appears to me that she was wonderful.
There are two scriptures I’d like to read this afternoon.
The first is from the book of the Revelation of John.
Hear now the word of God from Revelation 2:8-11
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.
“ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’
The second selection is from the New Testament of the Bible as well, from the book of Romans
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And finally, from the book of Job
And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Will you pray with me,
Dear Lord,
I know that I’m asking a lot
But in the next few minutes, would you open our eyes to see you like Ms. Sue did
So that we could have faith like she did.
Father, we whine like newborn puppies all of our lives
Rarely, if ever, stopping to enjoy the bounty you’ve surrounded us with.
Our sister didn’t whine.
She persevered.
Teach us to do that Lord so we can see for ourselves what true faith looks like.
Thank you for Sue and her wonderful family.
Whisper your peace in their ears right now we pray.
Amen
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) - Congregation (Matthew Pittman)
Della Sue Chafin was born on Saturday, March 11, 1933.
The great depression has started in 1929.
1933 was considered the height of the depression.
24.9% of all working age Americans were unemployed and looking for any work they could find.
When you read Sue’s book, it becomes painfully obvious her family was affected.
Sue was born at home.
Her mom had put a pan of cornbread in the oven and then went outside to talk to the neighbors.
She felt a contraction and said, “I think I’ll go check my cornbread.”
The woman she was talking to said she’d go with her.
And later that day, Sue was born.
Her recollection of her early life was one of moving a lot.
And I mean a lot.
Just for example, she went to four schools during her seventh grade year.
One house they lived in was so raggedy that snow blew into the house between the boards.
It’s almost beyond my imagination to think that anyone of my generation or later would endure that much and still keep going.
Perseverance is pretty much a major theme of Ms. Sue’s life.
Her family ended up living in Kennesaw in 1948.
That’s when she and A.J. got married.
Sue would have been 15 years old.
Ms. Sue was a Christ-follower.
A.J. was not.
It was pretty evident to me that A.J.’s growing to trust Jesus was a big deal to Sue.
She described him finally going to church with her.
He didn’t know how to act, really.
When the pastor offered the invitation, A.J. would walk the aisle and shake the preacher’s hand and then come back to his seat.
One evening, the preacher asked all ordained ministers and deacons to come down front.
She said there were about 15 of them in all.
The pastor said if anyone wanted one of those men to pray for them, to please come down and talk to that person.
A.J. went down and started on the left
And greeted and shook each man’s hand until he reached the preacher at the end.
Sue said he never told her what that preacher said, but right there on the spot A.J. dropped to his knees and gave his life to Jesus.
It took.
She told stories of him helping to build church buildings
And becoming a deacon
And it just seemed to me that she was very, very proud of him.
Not to belabor this too much, but I found it so fascinating.
They wanted a house of their own.
So they negotiated with a relative to buy 13 1/4 acres of land, I think it was in Kennesaw.
They cleared the land.
Then A.J., tore down two barns for two different people
And they paid him by allowing him to keep the wood.
He pulled nails and sorted boards.
He cleared trees and had some sawn into lumber.
And they built a house for their family.
I’m in awe.
I simply do not know many people at all that have the kind of drive and determination Sue and A.J. had to do that.
They made their way
With their own sweat and blood
Believing the whole time they were doing God’s work taking care of their family.
But in 1967, life proved to be unfair to Sue again.
On December 8, 1967, A.J. died.
They had only been married 17 years.
Sue would have been 32 years old.
She had three children.
She didn’t have a whole lot of marketable skills.
But she was fiercely independent.
It was stated that no one ever gave her a dime
Not sure if folks just weren’t generous, or if Sue simply didn’t want charity.
She was accustomed to being a care-giver, not a care receiver.
So she found herself a job.
The lady who didn’t want to drive a car.
The lady who A.J. had to put her behind the wheel when they were away from home
She refused to drive and he refused to not let her drive.
Her stubborn self thought she would wait him out.
But the immovable object met the unstoppable force.
And eventually she gave in.
It was a straight shift and she learned to drive it.
When A.J. passed, Sue got her a job as a school bus driver for Cobb County.
She did that for I think around 15 years.
Sue was an incredibly meticulous person.
She was the historian for the Wildwood Baptist Church in Cobb County.
It was the church that was adjacent to the back of their property.
She kept records of everything.
Every homecoming, while everyone was feasting on a good ole’ fashioned Baptist pot luck
Sue wasn’t eating.
She had her Polaroid Brownie camera snapping pictures for the church scrapbook.
Joe said she had every church bulletin from every week bound in a book for each year.
This skill carried over into all of her life.
Each of the kids has a very special book of pictures of them.
You should ask to see them, they are amazing.
The church played very prominently in their lives.
When Sue was at work there doing her thing, the kids were roaming the halls and playing everywhere.
And the church may have saved Joe and Barry’s life once.
Seems the two of them in their early 20’s got into a brotherly shoving match.
Back and forth they went until Barry gave Joe a particularly hard shove.
Joe had to retaliate so he picked Barry up and threw him across the room.
Unfortunately for them, Ms. Sue had already decorated for Christmas
And Joe’s aim was off
So Barry’s foot hit Ms. Sue’s Christmas tree.
Ms. Sue’s Christmas decorations were sacrosanct.
You didn’t touch her tree.
Joe said he heard the swoosh and felt the air and realized that Mama was after them with a broom.
They both took off running out the back door and across the yard and they didn’t stop running until they were clean across the church property.
Ms. Sue was still yelling at them.
And they stayed away for at least an hour to give her time to cool off.
Sue was serious about her Christmas.
They called Christmas her main hobby.
At last count, she had 13 or 14 Christmas trees set up around the house.
Everything from little desk top models to full fledged trees.
She would buy new ornament hooks every year so when she finished putting ornaments on the tree, she’d know exactly how many she had used.
Her last decorated tree had 450 ornaments on it.
She collected Santa Clause’s - she had 750 of them.
Every year, every tree was decorated by October the 31st and they didn’t come down until January.
And you didn’t touch her trees unless she gave you permission to touch only certain things.
They talked of her buying Christmas presents for everyone and making sure everyone had the same amount - to the penny.
They remembered her Peanut Butter Potato Candy
Basically, the peanut butter and potato were just a vehicle for the half a ton of powdered sugar you had to use.
They loved coming to her house for Christmas because it was the place you opened your presents BEFORE everyone ate.
The thing that impressed me the most as I talked with Ms. Sue’s family was how much they loved that woman.
And how much that woman loved them.
She tormented her children by teaching her grandchildren how to shoot the paper off their drinking straws across the room.
I mean really, how does the parent chastise the kid when Grandma is sitting right there teaching them how.
She kept a supply of M&M’s and before she’d go see one of the grands
She’s find a small unused bottle like a pill bottle or something
And she’d fill it with M&M’s
And then she’d very slyly sneak that container into the pocket of one of the grands
Whether mom and dad wanted that to happen or not.
And she kept up with them.
All of them.
She knew where they were and what they were doing.
She remembered everything forever - which is kind of frightening if you know what I mean.
Sue had 3 children, 5 grand-children, 6 great grand-children and 2 great-great grand children.
And she loved them each and every one.
I always ask the family to give me a simple word or two that describes their loved one.
They said Sue was quiet and humble.
I suspect that came from years and years of heads down, hard work struggle.
Of burying a husband and seeing a grand-child die way too young.
They said she was strong and calm.
She was that person that you could simply sit in the same room with
Sometimes for periods of time without words
With no pressure to fill the silence.
The silence and Sue’s presence were like a warm caress.
Peaceful and calming.
They said when she hugged you it was an event.
Her hugs conveyed her love to you - exact quote, “She was the best hugger ever!”
For me though, of course, the word that triggered my ears was faithful.
Faithful to her husband
Faithful to her family - I know you’ve thought of this
When A.J. died, Sue was 32.
The pictures of Sue in her book are pictures of a very cute, good looking woman.
Yet, she never re-married.
Now, I’m guessing here so I could be very wrong.
But I think part of that was her faithfulness to her family.
She would see them raised properly if it killed her to do it.
But all of her faithfulness was fueled by her faith in Jesus Christ.
The scripture we read earlier
Do you remember the Job passage?
Job 1:21 “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Sue knew what that meant.
She didn’t stain the rest of her life by whining about the unfairness of it all.
Life isn’t fair.
Good people suffer.
Evil people get rewarded.
And we fuss and complain and spit and swear that a good God wouldn’t allow that to happen.
He’d fix this world and stop all of the heart ache.
But you know, if He stops it
Say He got sick and tired of the world in 1932 and He fixed it all.
No more sickness, no more pain, no more death.
Life becomes perfectly fair, just like God is perfectly fair.
Do you realize - have you thought it all the way through.
We wouldn’t be here.
Sue would never have been born.
All of the joys of life - yes she had a multitude of hard times
And I might be the dumbest rock in this room, but it sounds to me like Sue enjoyed her life.
For heaven’s sake, I sure hope she didn’t collect Santa Clauses because they made her miserable?
She loved you.
She loved being here.
She loved making clothes
And cooking things that made you happy
And giving you Christmas presents
And finding out what was going on in your lives.
What a dark and gloomy place this would have been without her.
And without you?
I love Joe and Judy and Chloe and all of their family.
None of that would have been if God had just stopped it all.
Because He’s not just going to magically abracadabra change everyone to make them something they aren’t.
He is patient in a way we don’t know.
And He is kind in a way we can only glimpse.
No, He’s going to let us live and I think that is a great gift.
And He’s going to let us make our choices of how we want to live.
And how long we want to live.
He allows some to live for this world only and one day they will be done.
But for everyone who conquers - who perseveres like Ms. Sue did.
She kept her faith in Jesus’ goodness even though her life was exceedingly hard.
Remember the Revelation scripture?
Revelation 2:10 “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
Sue was faithful - she was faithful in the face of challenges that most moderns would crumble before
But she never stopped believing and her reward will be eternal, abundant life.
And what she believed to be true has now been made real in her sight
She knows now - it’s no longer hope - it’s knowledge - Romans 8:37–39 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
She believed it all of her life.
She knows it for a fact now.
Jesus, born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin
Lived a perfect life - a life you and I could never live.
He died because sin has to be punished and He wanted us to be able to live the life we were created for.
He rose from the dead to prove God’s power over our worst enemy.
And He ascended into heaven
Where Della Sue Morgan resides with Him now
Until that day when He does say stop and He makes all things new.
Sue made it through every challenge in her life and she didn’t regret her life
She made it by grit, determination and drive
Every bit of it fueled by Jesus Christ and His promise
That she would get to celebrate one day with Him and A.J. and all those who believe in a place where life becomes fair.
May the Lord bless us with eyes to see the beauty of Jesus Christ and His offer to make us all brand new.
Song: What a Day That Will Be - Congregation (Matthew Pittman leading)
Let us pray:
Oh our Lord,
May we arrive where means of grace cease
and I need no more to fast, pray, weep, watch
be tempted, attend preaching and sacrament;
where nothing defiles
Where there is no grief, sorrow, sin, death, separation, tears,
pale face, languid body, aching joints, feeble infancy,
decrepit age, pining sickness,
griping fears, consuming cares;
Where the more perfect the sight, the more beautiful the object
the more perfect the appetite the sweeter the food
the more musical the ear the more pleasant the melody
the more complete the soul the more happy its joy
where is full knowledge of you.
I thank you that this prayer of 500 years ago is relevant today
And I thank you that this prayer of 500 years ago was answered in Sue’s eyesight.
Bless your name for lending her to us for a season.
Praise your kindness for reminding us that those who are born again will see her again
All of us made new in the presence of the one true and living God.
Comfort us with your hope, in the mighty, wonderful name of Jesus Christ,
Our Savior and Lord, we pray. Amen.
