Sylvia Marie Lester Hess, age 97, of the Coxtown section of Honaker, Virginia went to be with the Lord on Friday (February 3, 2023) at her home. Born April 3, 1925 on Fletcher’s Ridge in Buchanan County, Virginia, she was a daughter of the late Charlie and Rachel Street Lester. A lifelong resident of the area, she had spent her early life in Buchanan County, moving to Honaker in 1962. She was employed as a seamstress at Honaker Mills. She was a devoted Christian and faithful prayer warrior. She was a Pastor’s wife and served alongside her husband, Rev. Earl S. Hess, during his twenty-two-year pastorate of Union Chapel in Vansant, Virginia. She felt a calling from God to share the Gospel message with everyone she came in contact with. Anyone that ever visited her home was sure to have been offered a hot meal and her kindness, hospitality and genuine compassion will leave a lasting legacy.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Rev. Earl S. Hess; two children, Lorania Hess and Gary Wayne Hess; granddaughter, Angela Hess; step-mother, Susie Street; sisters, Thelma Hess, Edith Owens and Myrtle Lester; brothers, J.B. Arwood and Teddy Lester.
Survivors include her daughters, Diania Bailey and husband, Robert Carroll of Deltona, Florida, Patricia Dills and husband, John of Hixson, Tennessee; her sons, Rev. James Earl Hess of Fallon, Nevada and Rev. Larry G. Hess and wife, Brenda of Cleveland, Tennessee; grandchildren, Robert Carroll Bailey, Jr., Rebecca Wildenberger, Anita Hess Hammer, Amy Marie Hess David, M.D., David James Hess, and Katherine Marie Hess DeGraw; sisters, Connie Ratliff and husband, Shorty of Oakwood, Virginia, Alice Brown of North Carolina, Dorothy Key of Florida and Judy Hagy and husband, Robert of Abingdon, Virginia; brothers, Tom Lester and wife, Teresa of Lebanon, Virginia and Dwight Lester and wife, Maretta of Rowe, Virginia; sister-in-law, Kathy Lester of Abingdon, Virginia; special caregiver, Faye Harris; fourteen great-grandchildren, expected twin great-grandchildren, several nieces and nephews also survive.
Funeral services will be conducted at 1 PM Tuesday in the Honaker Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Larry G. Hess and Rev. James E. Hess officiating. Interment will follow in the Greenhills Memory Gardens in Claypool Hill, Virginia.
Relatives and friends will serve as pallbearers.
The family will receive friends at Honaker Funeral Home from 12 Noon Tuesday until the funeral hour.