Frances Kay Johnson Lyerly, 75, passed away Sunday June 10, 2018 at her home in Whitesburg, Tennessee. She was born January 27, 1943 in Wise County, Va., the daughter of the late Edgar and Maude Freeman Johnson. She was saved at Scripture Memory Mountain Mission Camp at Emmalena, Kentucky, at the age of eleven. Frances married Kermit at the First Baptist Church in Jenkins, Kentucky, on Aug. 4, 1962.

Frances and Kermit lived in Kirtland, Ohio, where she served faithfully at Willoughby Baptist Church for 42 years. They later moved to Whitesburg in 2003 and became members of Russellville Baptist Church.

Frances was the first person to graduate from the Cleveland branch of Boyce Bible School and also the first woman in Ohio to graduate from Boyce Bible School, and she graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky in 1986.

Frances is survived by her husband, Kermit; as well as two sisters, Jean Johnson of Columbia, Kentucky, and Mary Pritchard of Jenkins, Kentucky; two special friends, Claudia Holbrook and Frances Howard; and a host of friends who mourn her passing.

The family would like to extend special thanks to Lana Kennedy, Edith Aduana, and Bobby Greene; their extended family at Russellville Baptist Church for all their visits, preparation of meals, prayers and support; the special people with Smoky Mountain Hospice, Ashleigh, Kathy, Heather, Meagan, Rebecca, Shanta and James. You all have been a wonderful blessing to our family