Lina Jones Messer

Lina Jones Messer, age 88, died on November 13, 2014 at home with her family by her side, finding much deserved peace and healing after years of declining health. Through her unrelenting spirit and the love of her family and friends, she met challenges with grace, humor and a gentleness that inspired her family and friends. A native of Wake County, she was preceded in death by her husband of 67 years, O.Q. Messer; parents, Walter R. Jones and Ina Mooneyham Jones; her brother, Walter Raleigh Jones, Jr; and sisters, Helen Jones Ellington Wall, Madeline Jones Andersen, Frances Jones Holleman, and Eloise Jones Blackwelder. She is survived by her daughters Frances Kay Messer and Bonnie Messer Cramer and husband Clark, many beloved nieces and nephews and a wide circle of friends. Lina was a life- long member of Inwood Baptist church where her parents attended in the late 1920’s. She had many happy memories, so vivid in her later days, of her life on a farm on Lake Wheeler Road. She was devoted to her sisters and spoke of them daily until she died. She remembered her father always with admiration and love and her brother who died in WWII. She loved her family and worked hard to see that her daughters had a good education. She instilled values of hard work, compassion for others and a strong sense of social justice in them from a young age. She was keenly interested in current events, keeping up with developments at home and abroad. She and her husband O.Q. enjoyed travelling and welcoming friends and family into their home. She had good humor and was full of grace and shared that with all who knew her. Mrs. Messer was blessed with a keen intellect and an immeasurable inner strength and faith. She had a strong spirit and persevered through years of declining health with calm acceptance. With great physical difficulty, she remained a central and active part of the lives of her family. She was devoted to her son-in-law, Clark, whom she and O.Q. viewed as a son. Sweet, loyal and a great influence to many, she is treasured by family and friends and will be missed. Mrs. Messer retired from North Carolina state government having worked for the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles for thirty years. She worked alongside her husband for many years after retirement travelling the state and meeting customers who greeted them warmly. They built a wide circle of friends. Mrs. Messer loved making a home for her family, keeping a beautiful yard, woodworking, sewing and involvement in crafts of all kinds for as long as she could. She quietly accepted the loss of her husband and sisters in recent years through an abiding faith and the solace of family and friends. The family is indebted to caregivers, Jennaira, Patricia, Retta, Carolyn, Margaret, LeeAnne, Miriam and Nancy who gave loving and skilled care, her angels on earth as Lina called them. A service of remembrance will be held to honor Lina Jones Messer on Thursday, November 20 at Inwood Baptist church, 3700 Lake Wheeler Road in Raleigh at 11:00. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service in the church sanctuary. Entombment will follow at Montlawn Memorial Park, Chapel of Memories Mausoleum, 2911 S. Wilmington Street. Arrangements are entrusted to Bryan- Lee Funeral Homes, 1200 Benson Road, Garner, N.C. Memorial donations, in lieu of flowers, may be made in memory of Lina Jones Messer to Inwood Baptist Church, 3700 Lake Wheeler Road, Raleigh, N.C. 27603 or to Transitions Life Care, (formerly Hospice)at 250 Hospice Circle, Raleigh, N.C. 27607.