Bishop Willie Lee Lamb died June 22, 2024, at age 100 in Akron, Ohio, where he lived with one of his daughters. Lamb was buried July 9 in Tom Biggs Holler, near McRoberts, in Letcher County, Kentucky.
The poet Jorge Luis Borges writes that with each death, the world loses a witness. Bishop Lamb saw a lot. He grew up in abject poverty as one of 15 children in the East Kentucky coal camp of McRoberts. He went to work in the coal mines at age 16 and was drafted into World War II at 18. He participated in the invasion of France, was a mess officer in the occupying armies in Germany, and was part of the expedition to liberate the Jewish concentration camps.
He was a union miner for 36 years and a man of faith who visited the sick and incarcerated in hospitals and jails in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee up into his mid 90s. Lamb was a bishop in the Church of God Militant Pillar and Ground of the Truth, a denomination with deep ties to McRoberts.
What follows is the obituary the Lamb family included in the funeral home program.
–Dee Davis, Publisher
Willie Lee Lamb Sr. was born on June 6, 1924, to Alexander Lamb Sr. and Maggie (Gray) Lamb. He was born, grew up, and lived in McRoberts, Kentucky, for 96 years. At the age of 7, Willie was diagnosed with rickets. He also had a severe speech impediment: stuttering. Children mocked him when he talked and laughed at him. His mother told him that he would be able to do anything that a person with “common sense” could do. That motherly advice gave him the strength to overcome insurmountable obstacles in life.
Willie, his sister Odessa, and brother Leonard sold peanuts and sandwiches as children to supplement the family income. The household consisted of two adults and 15 children during the Great Depression. Willie and his two siblings always devised ways to make ends meet.
At the age of 16, Willie was hired by Bethlehem Steel to work underground in the coal mines beside his father. The United States Army drafted him at age 18 and the Queen Mary transported him to Europe to fight in World War II. Under the leadership of General George S. Patton and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Willie participated in the attack on Adolph Hitler’s forces in Normandy on June 6, 1944, and later in the Battle of the Bulge. Willie vividly recalled the gas chambers and Jewish bodies stacked like sardines. He fed the hungry Jewish children and the German children, obeying God’s word to feed the hungry.
When he returned from World War II, his job in the coal mines was waiting for him. He worked in the mines for 36 years performing various jobs. He was the first African American underground electrician. Black lung disease forced an early retirement.
Bishop Willie Lamb (via Facebook)
Willie was a member of the United Mine Workers of America and a fierce advocate for miners. He assisted many in obtaining black lung benefits, resolved wage disputes, and fought for better health benefits.
In 1946, a 22-year-old Willie met a beautiful lady named Joanna Skipper. Love gripped the bishop’s heart at first sight. On December 24, 1948, Willie married Joanna. The couple had seven children: Willie L. Lamb Jr. (Gwen), John A. Lamb Sr. (Valorie), Madaline M. Sanders, James R. Lamb Sr. (Teresa), Gary L. Lamb Sr. (Denese), Walter G. Lamb (Linda Faye), Debrill Lamb (Keshia), and adopted daughter/grand-daughter Erin Lamb. Willie and Joanna were baptized in the name of Jesus and received the baptism of the Holy Ghost in the Church of God MPGT in McRoberts, Kentucky. Bishop Earl Walker was the overseer. After his passing, Mother Alma Walker became overseer.
Elder Lamb said God told him to build a church. He built the church and pastored it until May 2021, when he moved to Columbus, Ohio.
He was very active in his community: served on the planning committee for Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation, the Letcher County Judge Advisory Board, chaplain at eight hospitals, nine nursing homes, and three jails in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. In April 2022 Bishop Lamb received the Carolyn Sundy Award for leadership and community service from the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation. Willie was made a Kentucky Colonel, and March 22, 2024, was proclaimed to be Bishop Willie Lamb Day by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He had a small home improvement business installing indoor bathrooms, adding rooms to houses, and doing repairs.
He was preceded in death by Joanna (Skipper) Lamb, Willie L. Lamb Jr., Alexander and Maggie Lamb, and 12 siblings: Odessa Estell, Otis P. Lamb, Opal Lamb, Leonard Lamb, Anna B. Smith, Irene Ward, Donald Lamb, Elliot Lamb, Rosalyn Walker, Betty Rodgers, Beulah Williams, and Ellen Jones. Bishop Lamb leaves one sister, Sally Miller, one brother, Kenneth Lamb, six children, 24 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren, two great-great-grandchildren, a host of nieces, nephews, family, saints, and friends.
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