Willis J. Adams

Funeral services will be held graveside at Ft. Benning National Cemetery at 11 a.m., Monday April 20, with Father Keller officiating, interment to follow the ceremony. A procession from Striffler-Hamby to the cemetery will begin at 10:30a.m. Visitation hours are 4 to 6 p.m., Sunday, April 19, at Striffler-Hamby, Columbus.

The sixth of seven children, Bill was born September 29, 1918, in Barnesville, Georgia, to William Jeremiah Adams and Ettie Jones Adams.

In 1934, at the age of 15, Bill lied about his age and joined the Georgia National Guard, and he ended up serving in the Army until 1972, fighting in two wars and achieving the rank of colonel. His final active duty assignment was Ft. Benning, and he retired to Ellerslie, Georgia, where he and his wife Harriette (Jennings) Adams, formerly of Columbia, South Carolina, lived for 36 years. Harriette passed away in 2008, and in 2011 Bill came to live with his son in Northfield, Massachusetts, finally succumbing to the chronic lung disease that he had battled for ten years.

Bill enjoyed golf and tending the many local and exotic plants around his Ellerslie home; he enjoyed being with his Harris County friends, with his nieces and nephews, and with his family; most of all, Bill enjoyed being husband to Harriette.

Bill’s daughter Judith S. Adams predeceased him in 1967. He is survived by son John W. Adams and his wife Maureen of Northfield, granddaughter Katharine J. Adams and her husband Sean Maher of Somerville, Massachusetts, and grandson Seth S. Adams and his fiancée Kayleigh Vandermark of Northfield.

Donations in his memory may be made to Hospice of Franklin County, 329 Conway St., Greenfield, MA 01301.