Elizabeth L. Jarrell

On Tuesday December 14, 2021, Elizabeth L. Jarrell, 92, reached her final destination resting in the arms of the Lord.

As preceded in death by her parents, Andrew and Grace Lunsford, her husband, John, Sr., an infant daughter, Marissa, and three siblings, Lucille, Mary, and William, this will no doubt be a reunion for the books! This is a trip she had planned for and had worked toward her whole life.

Mom’s timing was never her forte, beginning with her birth in 1929. With the Great Depression looming in the foreground, it brought with it a bleak and uncertain future. The challenges of growing up during this global turmoil were too numerous to count. As Elizabeth reached each new milestone, her thirst for knowledge grew. When she graduated from high school with honors, she knew she was ready for college, but that would have to wait. She was needed at home to help her widowed mother and three younger siblings.

She then parlayed her brains and beauty into an office job for a local company. While putting her dreams of becoming a school teacher on hold, she met a suave, debonair, and very handsome young man named Johnny Jarrell, who become the love of her life. Her life was never the same. Their mutual love blossomed and eventually culminated in marriage.

In the years that followed, they, like GE, brought good things to life, like their four children, John, Jr., Brett, Christopher, and Aleta. They were more than a handful. As a lifelong member of the Church of Christ, she often quoted Bible verses that would keep said children in line. Her favorite was the one about “sparing the rod, spoiling the child.” It didn’t help when the minister all too frequently reminded his parishioners not to spoil their children. And don’t think her children were allowed to have fun like some teenagers. Her children had rules, chores, and religious training. They didn’t get to run around causing problems and making nuisances of themselves. Never were they permitted on a Sunday morning to sleep in. No sir! She dragged all four of her children, a couple kicking and screaming, to church every Sunday morning. We took up a whole pew in the very church whose minister didn’t like spoiled kids. Sitting second pew from the front didn’t provide much of a vantage point for us, but it sure provided a bird’s eye view for the congregation if one of the children had to be gingerly escorted out so as not to be come spoiled. Said child couldn’t cry because then he or she would be given a reason to cry. It was all pretty confusing at the time, but it was very clear that her love for God and her family never wavered.

She got that college degree and that teaching job. After her retirement, she devoted her time to gardening, crocheting, spending time with her 9 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and offering unsolicited advice to those she loved. Here’s to you, Mom. We love you and you will be sorely missed. Thanks for the guidance and all the lessons we learned and the advice we pretended to ignore! You were one of a kind!

Besides her children, those left to celebrate her life are her grandsons and granddaughters, John-Robert (Tiffany) Berry, Selena (Carl) Foster, Shellie (Daryl) Buchannon, Chanz (Candace) Jarrell, Cody (Dakota) Jarrell, Shawn (Marsha) Jarrell, Carissa (Larry) Farmer, Zac Jarrell, and Lindsay Jarrell; fifteen great-grandchildren; many nieces, nephews, and friends, and her second daughters, Pam Bell and Donna Jarrell.

Funeral services will be conducted at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, December 18, 2021, at the Evans Funeral Home Chapel with Mel Gresham officiating.

Burial will follow in Forest Lawn Cemetery at Pecks Mill, WV. Family and friends will serve as pallbearers.

Visitation will be held one hour prior to services Saturday at the funeral home.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Evans Funeral Home & Cremation Services of Chapmanville, WV.

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