Delores Childress Meissner, 87, resident of Jacksonville, Florida and longtime resident of Columbia, went to be with her Savior and Lord on Thursday, December 6, 2018 at Community Hospice in Jacksonville.
A graveside service will be conducted Tuesday at 10:30 A.M. at Santa Fe Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Monday from 5:00 – 7:00 P.M. at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home.
The family suggests memorials be made to communityhospice.com of Jacksonville, Florida. Condolences may be extended online at www.oakesandnichols.com.
Delores was born at home at Leipers Creek in Williamsport, Tennessee on Saturday, August 8, 1931. The daughter of Hobert Childress and Josie Lee Walker Childress she lived a simple hardworking life as a farmer’s daughter at one of the most beautiful farms on earth. She attended Columbia Central High School and graduated in 1945. While working for Southern Bell, she met her beloved husband, Phillip Augustus Johnson, on a blind date, fell deeply in love and married him shortly thereafter. They would have been married for 67 years this November. Their love was forever and enduring. They had one daughter, Marlane, and they resided at their small farm on Hampshire Pike for 55 years together. After his death in 2009, she longed for him so much she read the letters he wrote to her while he was stationed in the military, each week, rumpled and torn as they were some of her greatest earthly possessions.
In 2013, she moved to Jacksonville, Florida with her daughter and enjoyed life with family. She spent days with and dearly loved her three great grandsons, playing with them and reading to them when they were together. Her last great grandson was born during her extended illness and she will be forever honored through him, as he received her middle name. she was an avid reader and a kind Christian person, who had an uncanny gift of knowing people’s heart as soon as she met them.
In addition to her daughter, Marlane, she is survived by two grandchildren, Cody and Katelyn. A loving son-in-law who she adored, Robert Soldner. Four great grandsons, Noble, Knox, Nash, and Nolan. Locally, four nephews, Dennis (Cherry) Wiley, Larry (Ann) Wiley, Ricky (Teresa) Wiley, and Steven Wiley. New York nieces, Sue Meissner, Brenda Meissner, and Mary Meissner, and nephew, Donnie Meissner.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Phillip Johnson; her mother and father, Josie Lee and Hobert Childress; her sister, Frances Wiley; and her brother, Kermitt (Bub) Childress.
