WANDA LILLIE PLEASANT AKENS, 85, passed away at Johnson City Medical Center Wednesday, December 25, 2019. She was born August 21, 1934 in Roda, VA, where she lived until age five. She was a resident of Big Stone Gap the rest of her life. She preferred to be called Lillie.

She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. Lillie was a full-time housewife and helped in her husband’s company as a secretary. She started attending and singing at Cadet Primitive Baptist Church at age five. God blessed her with a beautiful voice, and she led singing for over 65 years. She taught Sunday School more than 25 years, helped with Bible School and fundraisers, and witnessed to all she met.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Jess Lynn Akens, Jr.; parents, Richard Frank and Ada (McBride) Pleasant; brothers, Lester, Frank, Harold, Vernon, and Kenneth Pleasant; sister, Virginia Lane; mother-in-law, Lily Horton Akens; father-in-law, Jess Lynn Akens, Sr.; and sisters-in-law, Blanch Elizabeth Akens and Eula Tignor.

She is survived by her daughters, Teresa McGuire (Bill), Vicky Jones (Roy); grandchildren, Angela Tignor (Travis), Stewart McGuire, Josh Jones (Ashley), and Justin Jones (Sheri); five great-grandchildren, two great-great-grandsons, a step-grandson, three step-great-grandchildren, and one step-great-great-grandchild; sisters, Irene Douglas, Patricia Leonard, and Pansey Giza; sisters-in-law, Marie Pleasant, Gerline Grey, and Tanya Guess; brother-in-law, Kenneth R. Akens (Shirley); many nieces, nephews, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and her life-long friend and church-bench-buddy, Lois Collier.

-Written by her family