Joe H. Willis

Joe Hydrick Willis, 90, of Candler, died Monday, March 30, 2009, at the Pisgah Manor Retirement Center. Mr. Willis was born in Bushnell, FL, and was the son of the late Joe Bennett and Emma Pattie Jennings Willis. He served as a staff sergeant with the Eighth Air Force, Army Air Corps, at Ridgewell, England during WWII. He was a retired auto body mechanic and he was a member of Hominy Baptist Church. He is survived by his wife, Lois Finley Willis; two daughters, Jennie Dalton of Candler and Pattie W. Hendrix and her husband, James Noble Hendrix, MD PhD, of Palm City, FL; one son, DeWayne Kipling Willis of Miami, FL; five grandsons, David Dalton, Joe Willis, Robert Willis, A. Noble Hendrix, PhD, and Jimmy Hendrix; and five great-grandchildren, Dustin, Josephine, Lily, Campbell, and Palmer Hendrix. The funeral will be at 2:00 p.m. Monday in the Patton Avenue chapel of Groce Funeral Home with the Rev. Donald N. Welborn officiating. Interment with military honors by the Buncombe County Veterans Council will follow at Pisgah View Memorial Park. Mr. Willis' Sunday School class from Hominy Baptist Church will serve as honorary pall bearers. The family will receive friends at the funeral home one hour prior to the service. Memorials may be made to Heart and Hearth Family Care Home, 2200 New Leicester Hwy., Asheville, NC 28806, or Hominy Baptist Church, 135 Candler School Road, Candler, NC 28715.