Nola Pearl Hill

Nola was born at Gallinger Hospital in Washington, DC as the eighth of twelve children (Willie aka Mookie, Clarence, John Morris, Imogene, Florence Ruth, Audrey, David, Nola, Shirley, Larry, Stanley, and Cornelius). Their parents, Willie and Nola Pearl Williams, left North Carolina as part of the historic Great Northern Migration of African Americans in the first half of the 20th century to build a new life in Washington, DC, where they raised their large family. From an early age Nola was intellectually curious and eager to learn and experience as many new things as possible, a trait that would take her far from her DC home chasing new horizons. One of her early passions that she maintained throughout her life was a love of music and playing the piano. Although she never realized her dream of studying music at Howard University, she continued playing the piano until her health recently failed.

As a fun-loving youth in the DC area, she loved meeting new people and experiencing new things and on September 20, 1967, she welcomed into the world her first child, a son, Anthony Charles, whom she called “Beenie.” Not long after this she looked to the opposite horizon from her east coast home and moved to Los Angeles, California. Hollywood was a new adventure. She learned skills related to the movie business and eventually took a steady job as a microfilm technician for the LA Board of Education. The free-spirited character of LA in the late sixties was a perfect new home for the ever-gregarious Nola as she made friends from every walk of life. This continued to be the case when a USC graduate student named David Hill moved into the Moon Apartments in September 1968 where she was already living. They started dating just a couple of months later and by the following summer they were married, and he became Anthony’s father. The following year they moved to an apartment in Southwest, DC and nine months or so after that a second son, Michael Cyprian, was born. About two years later, a third son, John David, was born and it was time to move the growing family to the suburbs. The family settled in Rockville, Maryland. Finally, after another 3 years, their fourth and youngest son, Stephen Clancy was born.

With all her sons now on the scene it was time for another adventure and the Hills moved toward another horizon, the Middle East. With her husband who took a job in Tehran, Iran and her youngest baby on her back, she trekked to a strange new world unlike anything she had ever experienced. She embraced the challenge, studied the language, and connected with the new culture. Yet, Iran would change her life in a surprising way. Back in DC, her mother and several siblings had become Jehovah’s Witnesses and although she had been skeptical of their religion meeting missionaries from the faith changed her view. After extensively studying the bible, she became determined to transform her life and dedicate herself to Almighty God Jehovah. On October 21, 1978, she was baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a makeshift wooden baptismal pool that she would later describe as like a coffin where her old life died and from which she emerged reborn. This happy moment would be short-lived because as anyone alive at the time knows, Iran soon erupted into a historic revolution and the family would have to soon flee for their lives.

Upon returning to the United States, Nola and her family eventually settled in Florida when her husband took a job working for NASA on the Space Shuttle program. A variety of pressures overwhelmed the family and the marriage ended in 1983, so Nola returned to DC with her boys in tow and took on the challenges of life as an inner-city single mother, but this fighter would not back down from this struggle. Studying the bible, going to meetings and field service, and trying to inculcate a strong faith in her sons were her chief concerns. Her struggle was not in vain because, although it was not a straight line in any instance, today all of her surviving sons are dedicated Christian Witnesses. Once her boys were grown, she entered the full-time evangelizing work as a pioneer, traveled to international conventions, and learned foreign languages to witness to various immigrant groups. Anyone who has spent any time with her knows she would preach to anyone, any time, in any language.

Nola Hill will be missed until we see her again in God’s paradise of promise. For now, she is survived by her son Anthony and his wife Christina, her son Michael and his wife Anita, her son John, her granddaughters Elaina and Layla, her grandson Julian, as well as brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, and a worldwide brotherhood of over 8 million fellow Witnesses.

For those unable to attend in person the Hill Family and the West Fort Washington Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses are providing Zoom access:

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