Harriet Gaynell Welch

Harriet Gaynell Welch, 92, of Abilene, died Friday, February 26, 2010 at an Abilene medical center. The daughter of Anna Jane (Wade) and Friend Thaddius West, Harriet was born on Wednesday, December 5, 1917, in Wileyville, West Virginia. She married John Joseph Welch on August 8, 1939 in Rochester, Pennsylvania. Harriet was a beautician, and in 1990 moved from New Cumberland, W.V. to Abilene, where she was a member of Hillcrest Church of Christ and active in the Ladies Quilting Group at the church. Harriet was preceded in death by her husband, John Joseph Welch in 1977; son, Dr. Jack L. Welch in 1996; parents; four brothers, Bruce E. West, Archie H. West, Franklin David Carpenter and Willie R. Carpenter; and four sisters, Martha West, Arlene M. "Lena" Carpenter, Nettie Carpenter and Mildred Carpenter. Survivors include her daughter-in-law, Alice Jean Welch of Abilene; sister, Waneta Clegg of Ocean Springs, Mississippi; grandchildren, John Fortney Welch and wife, Angela Joyce Welch, of Spring, Texas, and Lucy Gaynell Bartholomee and husband, Russell Bartholomee, of Arlington, Texas; four great-grandchildren, Ian Lowell Bartholomee, Riley Jack Bartholomee, Clayton Dean Kennedy and Ashton Brooke Warren; and several nieces and nephews. The funeral service will be 11:00 a.m. Monday, March 1, in the Hillcrest Church of Christ Chapel in Abilene with Terry Brown officiating, directed by The Hamil Family Funeral Home, 6449 Buffalo Gap Road. The family will receive friends 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home. Burial will follow at a later date in the New Cumberland Cemetery in New Cumberland, West Virginia. Memorials donations may be made to the Jack Welch Scholarship Fund, Abilene Christian University Station, Box 29130, Abilene, TX 79699-9130.