James Sanders

We lost James Sanders today. 

My first memory of James was as my Daddy's fellow preacher and friend. Once when I was in high school I somehow managed to get trapped into a road trip with Daddy, James, Al Bruce, and Y.A. Bailey to Asbury College in Kentucky. The five of us were roommates for one night in a hotel in Somerset, Kentucky. I got very little sleep. Such a cacophony of foghorn snores I have never before or since experienced. 

Later James served as pastor of Winter's Chapel United Methodist Church in Sandy Springs where my sister Carol and her family attended. 

Sheila and I came to Rome to live eight days after our marriage in 1971 and (re)joined Trinity UMC. When we moved way down in the country at Chubbtown in southern Floyd County we got used to sleeping in on Sundays and did not attend church regularly. We moved back to town in 1976 but our Sunday morning habits had become ingrained and we didn't make it back to church. Then James was appointed pastor at Trinity UMC. James was the most dedicated "visitor" of any pastor I've known. And soon after he came to Rome there he was at our front door on Cedar Avenue and we had a nice visit. When we made it back to Trinity it happened to be a Sunday when the choir director Greg (?) took time to issue an invitation to the congregation for new choir members. We showed up in Mobley Hall the next Wednesday night and Trinity's choir became a beloved part of our lives and James our beloved pastor and his outspoken wife Betty was a much beloved fellow choir member.

When our daughter Brannon Ruth Shaw was born in 1983 James was one of our first victors at the hospital. We brought her to church the very next Sunday along with a bag of Baby Ruth candy bars to pass out as treats to commemorate the birth of our "Baby Ruth". James asked to have enough of the candy bars to give the kids during his "children's sermon". Doggone if James didn't tell the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth! Granted at 34 and 36 we were older first time parents, but really! 

From Mother's 1984 Christmas letter

My Daddy came up to officiate at Brannon's baptism but, of course, James was a part of that service as well. 

In 1984 I was president of the Floyd County Democratic Association. I appreciated James agreeing to lead the invocation for the Jefferson-Jackson dinner at the Roman Inn that year.

James stayed at Trinity for six years. That was a long pastorate by UMC historical standards at that point. He broke the previous record (my Daddy's) at Trinity of five and a half years. That record would stand until David Campbell's ten-year pastorate.

One of the two plaques at Trinity UMC that records the pastors who served the church from 1875 to present. [2024 note: Trinity UMC was disbanded in 2023.]

James was proud to drive a twenty-tear-old car which he kept in immaculate condition.

By 1986 James had moved on to College Park UMC. When my Daddy died on December 3, James helped facilitate the funeral at that church and joined with my brother-in-law Jim Turrentine and the District Superintendent Marion Pierson, and George King in officiating the service. 

James' memoir.

James' note to Mother in her copy of his memoir.

I greatly admired James Sanders and I will miss him.

Here is James' online obituary from the funeral home:

The Rev. James L. Sanders died May 21, 2018. He was born August 22, 1928 in LaGrange, GA to the late Walter E. and Millie Knowles Sanders. He was preceded in death by this first wife, Betty Alice Curry Sanders to whom he was married for fifty-five years. He is survived by his present wife, Janice Clotfelter Sanders and four children: Lamar and wife Melissa Sanders, William (Bill) Sanders, Alice Bell, Laura Bishop and husband Joe Collette, eight grandchildren: Katy Southern, Jonathan Sanders, George Sanders, Chris West, Bill Bishop, Stephanie Benham. Jeff Bell, and Jennifer Sudderth, and thirteen great grandchildren: Abigail and Sawyer Benham, Parker and Addison Bishop, James Henry, Eli and Matthew Southern, Drew and Leia Sanders, Hannah and Jacob West, Jenna Burleson, and Maranda Bell. Also surviving are three stepsons and their wives: David and Susan Clotfelter, Jeff and Brenda Clotfelter, Mike and Lisa Clotfelter, eleven step-grandchildren, thirteen step-great grandchildren, and brother and sister in law Byron and Patricia Scott.

James attended Piedmont College and was the first male to graduate from Shorter College. Later he received a Masters of Divinity (cum laude) from The Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

He served for 48 years under appointment of The North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, serving churches in Dillard, Cleveland, Mizpah and Rush Chapel in Rome, Zebulon and Fincher, Fair Oaks in Marietta, University Heights in Decatur, Winters Chapel in Doraville, Trinity in Rome, College Park First Methodist, Tuckston in Athens and Covington First Methodist. After retiring in 1995 he served as interim at Leland Methodist Church in Mableton and was on the staff at Grace United Methodist Church in Atlanta for 10 years as Minister of Pastoral Care. His greatest love in the pastorate was visitation. He made well over 50,000 pastoral calls during his active pastorate and made some 6,500 during his time at Grace. He conducted over 150 funerals since retirement. 

Services will be held Friday, May 25, 2018 at 11:00 am at The Tucker First United Methodist Church with burial at Winters Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery, Doraville. Visitation will be held Thursday, May 24, 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm at AS Turner Funeral Home in Decatur.

In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to University Heights United Methodist Church, 1267 Balsam Dr. Decatur, GA 30033.

Ministers and spouses of The North Georgia Conference are invited to form an Honorary Escort.