Faith Lydia (Powell) Bruce

Faith Lydia Powell Bruce, 79, of Wilmington, N.C., went home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Wednesday, July 25, 2018.

   While in her last days, she was cared for by the excellent staff at the McLeod Hospice House in Florence, S.C. Faith was born Feb. 11, 1939, in Chicago, Ill., to the late Robert A. Powell Sr. and the late Eleanore Iverson Powell.

   Faith graduated in 1959 from Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago, Ill., as a registered nurse, and gave 42 years of devoted nursing care with practice in hospital, nursing home, industrial and home health settings. She retired in 2001, with 15 years of civil service care for Native American tribes: Cherokee in Western North Carolina, Paiute in Nevada, Navaho in New Mexico and Apache in Arizona. Faith had been a member of First Baptist Church in Lumberton, N.C., while living there.

   She is survived by her children, Kimberly (Maxwell) Biggs, of Florence, S.C., Keith William Bruce, of Waynesville, N.C., and Kathleen (William) Thomson, of Moyock, N.C.; daughters-in-law, Donna S. Bruce Strickland of Durham, N.C., and Wendy Williams Melvin of Lumberton, N.C.

Faith's nine grandchildren are William L. Bruce, Donovan, Samantha Jo and Steven (and wife, Betsy) Biggs, and Kassandra, Virginia and Rebecca Thomson, Conner and Duncan Bruce; and three great-grandchildren, Layton and Landon Bruce and Bruce Orion Maxwell Biggs.

   Her surviving siblings are Alex Powell, of Steven's Point, Wis., Juanita (Bunny) Rogers, and Harold Powell of Kankakee, Ill.; and the father of her children, Billy A. (Joanne) Bruce, of Oak Isle, N.C. Her best nursing school friends were Marilyn Briggs of Oak Brook, Ill., and Sandy Fallon, of Western Springs, Ill.

She is predeceased by her son, Kevin R. Bruce; her parents; and her brother, Robert A. (Bobby) Powell Jr.

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