William Thomas Bible Sr.

William Thomas Bible, Sr. went home to be with the Lord on Sunday, November 5, 2017. He was born on August 9, 1921 in Morristown, Tennessee, to his parents, Glenn Gerard Bible and Flora Jones Bible. The family moved to eastern  Kentucky where he spent his early years and graduated from Harlan County High School in 1939. He then worked for Swift and Co. before enlisting in the United States Merchant Marines. During World War II  he served as ship's engineer from 1942-1945. He made several world tours and was actively engaged during the Battle of Normandy. He graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy post wartime in 1945. After the war he returned to Kentucky where he and his father were co-owners and operators of Bible's Grocery Store in Hazard, Kentucky. In 1956 he moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee where he met and married his wife of 48 years, Annie Katherine Phillips Bible. A devoted husband and father, he is survived by their two children, William Thomas (Tom) Bible, Jr. and wife Laura, and Caroline Bible Roark, and husband Wiley; four grandchildren, Mary Katherine Roark Harbin, and  Wiley Barton (Bart) Roark, Jr., and wife Sara, William (Will) Thomas Bible III and Mary Elder Bible. He had four great grandchildren, John (Jack) Anthony Harbin, Jr., Allie Elisabeth Roark, Annie Caroline Harbin, and Wiley(Wiles) Barton Roark, III. He is also survived by his cousin Alvah Bible of Knoxville, TN, one nephew Dr. Brent Haeberle and wife Joan of Augusta, GA, and several great nephews and neices as well as special family friends Annie Lee Sturnes and Mary Stolz. He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife, one sister, Geraldine Bible Haeberle and husband Clarence, two nephews, Dr. Glenn Haeberle and Dr. Mark Haeberle. During his years in Chattanooga he owned and operated Bible's Hardware in Rossville, Georgia, worked for many years as an agent with Jefferson Standard Life Insurance, and was a broker at E. Cecil Phillips Agency where he worked until his retirement in 1986. He was a charter member and first president of the Chattanooga chapter of the Merchant Marines Veterans Association. He was named Hamilton County Veteran of the year in 2004. He was a deacon and Sunday School teacher and a member of Stuart Heights Baptist Church at the time of his death. Funeral Services will be held at Lane Funeral Home on Ashland Terrace (Chattanooga, TN) on Thursday, November 9, 2017. The burial will follow at Forest Hills Cemetery. Memorials may be made to The Gideons International, P O Box 403810, Atlanta, Georgia 30384.     Pallbearers are Military Honor Guard of Hamilton County. Honorary Pallbearers are members of the Hamilton County Merchant Marine Veterans Association, Dr. John Whitlock, Daniel Jones and  Employees of Blue Ridge Senior Living and Mountain City Care Center. As requested, this obituary is a courtesy of Mountain City Funeral Home.