LEXINGTON – Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things I will make you ruler over many things; enter into the joy of your Lord. Matthew 25:21.
. . . Absent from the body . . . present with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8.
Elizabeth Rikard Sessions was ushered into Glory on February 24, 2017. She was born January 19, 1919, the daughter of the late Lewie and Bertha Rikard of Gilbert, South Carolina. She was educated in the Gilbert schools and graduated valedictorian of her class. She attended and graduated from Columbia Bible College (CIU). She taught Bible in SC public schools. While recuperating from surgery, she went to be with her sister and brother-in-law in Chicago. It was there she met Franklin H. Holstedt, and they were married in SC. They served together as administrators of Rikard Nursing Homes. They had one daughter, Mary Carolyn.
On February 23, 1967 her husband, Frank, went before her in death. Years later, she married Rountree Sessions, Sr. and they served the Lord together through church ministry and Lay Renewal Ministries both nationally and internationally. Tree was called home July 30, 1999. She continued Christian service at her beloved CIU through the Ladies Prayer group, serving on the CIU Board of Trustees and as a liaison between Ben Lippen School and CIU Board of Trustees. She was awarded Distinguished Alumni and received an honorary doctorate from CIU. She faithfully served as chaplain to the women in the Lexington Correctional Facility. She also served through teaching her adult SS class and a ladies bible study at Lexington Baptist Church.
She is survived by a daughter, Mary H. Taylor and her husband, Don; grandchildren, Dr. Elizabeth Michelle Clevenger and husband, Todd; great-grandson, Caleb, Donald Franklin Taylor and wife, Dr. Charis Taylor; great-grandchildren, Savannah, Caroline, Abigail, and William Franklin and granddaughter, Meredith McKellar Taylor; step-children, Thomas Rountree Sessions, Jr. (Peggy), Ann Sessions (John Warsaw), and Julie Sessions (Tim Gross); step-grandchildren, Sarah Sessions, Stacey Westberry (Lance); step-great-grandchildren, Caroline and Kirsten Westberry; sister, Naomi Rikard Cothran and sister-in-law, Audrey Holstedt Bennett.
She is preceded in death by husband, Franklin H. Holstedt and two infant children; husband, T. Rountree Sessions, Sr.; brother, L.L. Rikard Jr., and sister, Ruby Rikard Wilcox.
Memorials can be made to CIU-Elizabeth R. Sessions Scholarship, BLS-Elizabeth R. Sessions Scholarship and CIU Athletics, 7435 Monticello Road, Columbia, SC 29203 or Lexington Baptist Church sponsored church plant in Portland, Oregon, 308 East Main Street, Lexington, SC 29072.
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