Margaret McLeod Funeral
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Margaret (Margie) English McLeod
Born: November 17, 1925
Passed: January 3, 2026
Celebration of Life: January 10, 2026 - Gray Memorial Chapel
Interment: Gray Memorial Gardens (Cedar Ridge)
Husband: Deceased d.2022 - Juddie Kolb McLeod Married 67 years
Child: Deceased: William Rue Leatherwood
Stepchild: Judy Kay Dewrell
Grandchildren: Michael Andrew Leatherwood(Deceased), Alex (Charmion) Leatherwood, Stephen (Jessica) Leatherwood, Christopher (Leigh) Leatherwood
Great-Grandchild: 13
Great-Great Grandchildren: 4
Order of Service:
Prelude - Funeral Mix (Recording)
Song - Beulah Land - Recording
Welcome, Scripture and Prayer - Randy Darnell
Song - Jesus Is Everything To Me - George Sheffield
Memories: Alex Leatherwood
Randy and Cathy Smith
Song - I’m There In Your Book of Life - George Sheffield
Eulogy - Randy Darnell
Closing Prayer - Randy Darnell
Dismissal and Postlude - Funeral Mix (Recording)
Service:
Song - Beulah Land - recording
Welcome, Scripture and Prayer - Randy Darnell
I want to welcome you to the celebration of life of Mrs. Margaret English McLeod
Or simply, Ms. Margie.
Funny thing about Ms. Margie - she was going strong for 100 years.
She fell I believe it was not too terribly long ago and I thought that would take her out.
But it didn’t.
She was determined to make it to 100.
When we would come in to do worship at Autumn Lane, she would still brag that she could touch her toes.
But when she hit 100 on November 17th, she and the Lord decided she’d been here long enough.
She started to fail until 3 days after the new year, Jesus called her home.
I’ve wondered what it would feel like to be 100.
Jake passed away in 2022.
Their son passed away years ago - a grandson passed.
Anybody they knew or came up with is long gone.
As outgoing as Ms. Margie was, it had to be a bit sad.
Many, many memories that she had were all of people who no longer existed on the face of this earth.
The good news is - many of them were with Jesus to welcome her home.
So welcome to you.
Thank you for coming to honor her memory and honor this family.
May the Lord richly bless each of you with the love of God and happy memories of Ms. Margie.
She made the scripture selection for today pretty easy.
Alex sent me a picture of the inside of her Bible and she very plainly stated to read these two selections.
The first is from the book of Romans 8:28-29
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And the second is from the book of Psalms 121
A Song of Ascents.
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Let us pray:
Dear Father,
Thank you for your tender mercy that chose Margie McLeod to be your child.
By your grace you called her and caused her to see your great love for you
So that she would follow you and talk about you every chance she got.
Lord, thank you that your word says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
Margie did not cease to exist when her heart ceased to beat.
But instead, you knew of her and you sent your angels to escort her home.
Lord, I pray Margie has seen her precious mother
And her granddaddy the preacher.
But most of all, I pray she has seen Jesus because she sure was looking forward to it.
Father, please comfort your people.
Warm our heart with your love and cause us to believe in your power to bring the dead back to life.
Show us your power, in Jesus’ name, Amen
Song - Jesus is Everything to Me - George Sheffield
Memories - Alex Leatherwood
Memories - Randy and Cathy Smith
Song - I’m There In Your Book of Life - George Sheffield
Eulogy
I guess I’ve known Ms. Margie about as long as I’ve known many folks at First Baptist.
When I became the interim Pastor in 2013, She and Jake came almost every Sunday.
They sat on the right hand side on about the 4th or 5th pew.
Side by side, every time.
I know I’ve told you the story about their names.
I was trying hard to memorize names and I’m just horrid at it.
So I tried a mnemonic device - you know, use one thing to help you remember another.
Both of their hair was white as clouds.
Their last name was McLeod - simple enough right.
Except every time I saw them I thought, “Whitehead” and then “no that’s not right.”
I finally got it.
Time passed pretty quickly and their health started to fail, particularly Jake’s.
George and I would bring our traveling prayer meeting to their house.
George would sing and I would read a few passages of scripture and say something profound, I hoped.
That’s when we heard the stories.
We learned of how they met at the tire cord factory.
It actually started a few years earlier at the shoe store Jake managed.
Margie and her mom went shoe shopping and Jake couldn’t take his eyes off of Margie.
So much so that Margie’s mom called it to her attention.
By the way, Margie never referred to her mom without calling her “my precious mother.”
The was obviously a deep bond there.
Anyway, she went to work at the tire cord plant and needed a health break.
A co-worker showed her a short cut through another department to get to the restroom
And there was Jake.
They hit it off and before long they were married.
I’d love to say that it was all bliss, but their marriage caused the breakup of other marriages.
And that caused a lot of hurt over time.
Divorce always does - God didn’t design us for divorce so it stands to reason it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
But, time does heal wounds and some of those where healed over time.
Margie told us about her working for Sears in Ocala, Florida.
I forget exactly how but she got moved into the appliance department and proved to be a wizard salesperson.
She could sell extended warranties better than anyone and was recognized as a top sales person.
But the biggest surprise was, when she left, she found out that she had enrolled in a stock purchase program
And she didn’t know about it.
It was a very sizeable chunk of stock and she was very surprised.
I was very surprised when she told me she donated to a ministry in Israel.
But that’s what Margie did, she gave things away.
Every visit to her house, before we could leave she would ramble around to find something to give us.
Mostly, when she could cook, she would give me whole fig preserves.
Most folks don’t do whole figs anymore - they chop them up and mix them with strawberries or something.
But not her - she made them just like my great grandmother did.
You could take one of those and put it on a hot buttered biscuit and understand what Paul meant when he said he was caught up to the third heaven.
She also gave me this silver dollar on one visit.
She told me to hang on to it and every time I saw it, to say a prayer for her and Jake.
I put it in my whatever you call that thing where you put your car keys and wallet by my bed.
Every morning, I’d see that silver dollar, so I’d touch it and say a quick prayer for them.
I was glad when she went to live at Autumn Lane.
I worried about her in that house, mostly alone.
As you all know, she suffered a little bit of - what do you want to call it - senility - at 100 you deserve something, right?
But she went to Autumn Lane and when we would come in to do worship each month, there was Margie.
Telling my wife she could still bend over and touch her toes - and then she would stand up and show her.
She’d tell us over and over how much she loved us.
She always kissed me multiple times on the cheek.
And her eyes always lit up every time she saw us.
I have no clue if Margie loved Jesus when she was younger like she did as she got older.
She gave me a letter in 2022 that she said for me to read at her funeral if we weren’t raptured first.
It was headed Margaret McLeod
This is her testimony, which she entitled, “My Testimony”
“O! God my life isn’t what it should be nor has it been, but whom do I have to blame?
Certainly not Thee! For You in my heart know, Thou would love me pure and spotless
As the Lamb who died for me, Jesus Christ, Thou Son.
The greatest Gift of Charity ever to be received by mankind.
My Maker, My Savior! My God! Let this be the song I’ll sing for ages to come.
God helping me to walk, God helping me to talk, I’ll witness each day His great love for me.
Then after this, I’ll be able to shout, “Come Lord Jesus Come!
Then we will have peace on earth the new earth forever more.
Written January 7, 1970 - The Holy Spirit speaking to me.”
In 1970, she would have been 45, so she’s been loving Jesus for a long time.
She had written a number of things in her Bible that were important to her.
She mentioned Romans 8:22-23
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Since all creation was groaning under sin, all creation will be redeemed by the second coming of Jesus.
And the big point she got from that was - there will be animals in heaven.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a theologian use that verse for that, but I’m not going to dispute it either.
She mentioned Romans 5:9
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
And she noted, we are saved from wrath through Jesus - and she’s not wrong.
Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
No one alive has ever lived up to the glory God created us for - except for Jesus.
All of us sit under God’s condemnation because of our sin.
But if we trust Jesus as our Savior, and follow him, then we are saved from the wrath of God.
She wrote “When you have Jesus, He meets all our needs,” and she referenced Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
I leaned on that verse to carry me through working for the worst boss in history.
She was right - the Lord meets all of our needs.
Over and over, Margaret McLeod referenced scripture and over and over she added her little commentaries.
“Give praise to God our Lord and Savior and soon coming king,” that was on December 21, 2013.
“Preach in His name - repent of sins”
“Our victory through Christ Jesus.
“Stand for Christ.”
And so Margaret did - she stood for Christ.
She told us lots and lots of stories
But every visit ended with Jesus.
At the end of 100 years, her mind was addled
She was quick to repeat herself with the same stories over and over.
But even then, she ended them with Jesus.
I can say about Ms. Margie what I pray someone says about me one day.
She had her faults, but she tried her best to follow Jesus.
If you learn nothing else from her, learn that.
Follow Jesus the absolute best you can.
Pray with me.
Dear Father,
Thank you for Ms. Margie.
Thank you for an extraordinarily long life and for letting us see it.
Lord, of all of the things we remember of her, please mostly let us remember her love for you.
Let your love touch our hearts
Cause us to see what mercy really looks like.
Help us to understand how an offended God could see in His heart the ability to make a way to forgive the offenders.
Bless these as they go their way, in Jesus’ name, Amen
Graveside
Hear now the Word of the Lord from 1 Corinthians 15:51-57
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times
“The Lord left me here to witness the rapture until He comes.
I don’t care if you are black, white, purple or polka-dots, I’m going to witness the rapture to them.”
And she did.
I can’t imagine the surprise on some the folks faces she told me about.
I remember her telling me about being in the grocery story and she bumped into this lady.
And before you could say boo, Margaret was telling her about the rapture.
That one day Jesus is going to come back and the graves are going to open and we are all going home to be with Jesus.
Her witnessing about the rapture was on repeat play in her brain.
Every time we visited - every time she would end up saying it - word for word
Sometimes several times.
But you know, there could be worse things to have stuck in your head.
Because, she’s not wrong.
The scripture I just read is the scripture she is referring to.
1 Corinthians 15:52 “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
Sounds like a fairy tale - and I suppose to a lot of folks it is.
Dead people don’t come to life.
Real people don’t walk on water.
All kinds of religions have stories of someone ascending into heaven.
But, not all kinds of religions have a God who comes down to man.
Every other religion has man trying real hard to be good enough for God.
Only the Father sent Jesus to come to us to rescue us from ourselves.
It’s hard to imagine the world with Margie gone.
It’s harder to imagine a world without Jesus.
How many addicts would still be addicted
How many abusers would still be abusing
How many wounded hearts would still be broken
How much technology would not exist, had Jesus not come?
Science was born in the church.
So yeah, one day we are going to hear something that will make every last one of us look to the sky.
And at places like this and cemeteries all over the place - crazy things are going to happen.
And Margie’s body - made new like Jesus’ - will unite with her spirit
And she’ll live forever with Jesus in a new heaven and a new earth.
The old girl wasn’t wrong.
And I’ll be happy to tell that to everyone - no matter if they are black or white or purple or polka-dots.
Jesus IS coming again, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us pray:
We commend into thy hands of mercy the soul of this our sister departed, Margaret
And her body we commit to the earth, beseeching you in your infinite goodness, to give us grace to live in your fear and love, and to die in your favor
So that when the judgement shall come which you have committed to your well-beloved son,
Both this our sister, and we, may be found acceptable in your sight
and that we receive that blessing, which your well-beloved son shall then pronounce to all that love and fear you, saying
Come you blessed children of my Father: Receive the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world.
Grant this merciful father for the honor of Jesus Christ, our only Savior, Mediator, our Advocate and our Friend.
[Ephesians 3:20-21 NASB] 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen
