Angela "Angie" Elizabeth Holston Harris, 60: "Spiritual treasure chest"
Angela Harris was always the one in the family who talked to her brothers and sisters about faith and spirituality.
Her brother, Ronald Holston of Decatur, likened the experience to attending church. Mrs. Harris was the preacher.
"It was like opening the Bible and reading it," he said. "She was persistent and determined for us to come around, and we all did. She encouraged all of us spiritually. She was born with it."
Recently, Mrs. Harris had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She kept the news from her family as long as she could.
On Thursday, Angela "Angie" Elizabeth Holston Harris died from complications of the disease at Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale. She was 60.
The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Martin Street Church of God in Atlanta. Gus Thornhill's Funeral Home, Inc. is in charge of arrangements.
Marion Holston, of Ellenwood, surmised there was something special about her daughter when Mrs. Harris was young. She'd declare that certain events would happen and they would, her mother said.
"She was a prophetess," Mrs. Holston said. "She was doing the work of the Lord before she went into ministry. She would just see things, and what she told you, you could look for it. Everything she has said has happened. Even to her. Even to her pastor. She told him that he would be a pastor some day."
Kevin Lydell Smith was 27 when Mrs. Harris, his good friend, told him what was in store. Naturally, ministry was the farthest thing from his mind at the time.
"I told her, ‘Girl, you have lost your mind,' " Mr. Smith recalled. "I was doing my own thing."
Today, Mr. Smith is known as Bishop Smith. He's pastor of Greater Body of Christ Temple, Inc. in Atlanta. Mrs. Harris served as an associate pastor at Greater Body.
In 1967, Mrs. Harris graduated from Atlanta's Luther Judson Price High School, where she was an honor-roll student. She enrolled at Clark College and attended that university for two years before transferring to another historically black school, Bay Ridge Christian College, in Kendleton, Texas.
In 1971, she graduated from Bay Ridge with a nursing degree. She returned to Atlanta in the early 1970s and worked as a registered nurse at Grady Memorial Hospital, where she'd been employed while a Clark student.
Mrs. Harris left the nursing profession to work at a daycare center, which her mother ran for several years. Though she never attended theology school, she eventually became a full-time associate pastor at Greater Body of Christ Temple.
"She was determined to find a church who accepted her," her brother said, "and a church that would let her exercise her freedom as far as ministering to people. She helped a lot of people prayerfully and spiritually."
"She was dedicated to God," Bishop Smith said. "She had a gift of discernment and a gift of prophesy. If she were a jewel, she'd be a treasure chest."
Additional survivors include nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles.
