Jennifer Shrader/Daily News
Mallary Spofford, left, and Lauren Terry, both 11, rode the bus from LaGrange with their parents to Millard Fuller’s memorial service in Atlanta. Children were given costumes from different countries and passed out programs – including a construction apron and ‘mustard seeds of faith’ before the service.
Mallary Spofford, left, and Lauren Terry, both 11, rode the bus from LaGrange with their parents to Millard Fuller’s memorial service in Atlanta. Children were given costumes from different countries and passed out programs – including a construction apron and ‘mustard seeds of faith’ before the service.
The life of Millard Fuller, who died Feb. 3 at age 74, was celebrated Saturday with a memorial service at Ebenezer Baptist Church that began with a haunting rendition of “Amazing Grace” and ended with a spirited St. Patrick’s Day-themed parade through Atlanta’s streets. That’s where Linda Fuller pulled a hammer out of her apron, which she’d strapped on over her dress and cream heels, and nailed house numbers on a Fuller Center house dedicated earlier that morning.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who helped build Habitat for Humanity in its earliest days, recalled that the two men did not start out as friends.
“In 1980, I was involuntarily retired from my job at the White House,” said Carter, who attended the service with his wife, Rosalyn. “Rosalyn and I were home in Plains, licking our wounds.”
Carter found a letter from Fuller, one of about 30,000 a day he received at the White House. Fuller was critical of Carter for being “inattentive to the poor,” Carter recalled.
Fuller wanted Carter to work for Habitat. Eventually, the two had a meeting at which Carter says he had every intention of turning Fuller down.
“He had a legal pad left over from his lawyer days filled with 32 things he wanted me to do,” Carter told the estimated 1,200 in attendance. “Eventually I did them all. A lot of you in this room know exactly what I mean.”
Carter and others noted the appropriateness of holding the memorial service at the home church of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“I don’t know anyone who carried out Martin Luther King’s mission more,” Carter said.
One of his first trips with Fuller was to the Philippines, where 14,000 volunteers built a Habitat community. The house that Carter worked on was for a woman who had been living in an abandoned septic tank.
“I’m here to represent the many volunteers whose lives have been transformed by Millard Fuller,” Carter said.
Fuller was a native of Lanett, Ala. A contingent of LaGrange and West Point area residents attended Saturday’s service, along with members of the Chattahoochee Fuller Center, which is building houses in West Point.
Sisters Tracy Martin and Tammy Robison took their children.
“Our children can see that kind of service for a man who wasn’t a celebrity or an actor or sang a song and to see he had that kind of honor,” Martin said. “He had a life well-lived.”
Robinson and Martin said Fuller - as well as his family, who participated in the service - are an example for their own children.
“The kids paid most attention when (Fuller’s grandchildren) were up there singing,” Robinson said. “The children are just as passionate as their parents.”
Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.
pastors at the KY church I grew up in kept
Millard Fuller overnight once, when Mr. Fuller
spoke near Louisville, KY in a Methodist church
years ago. I do believe, though, that few
have had the stainless reputation of North Carolinean Billy Graham when it came to being
around females. Mr. Fuller should have been as
careful as Mr. Graham and would have avoided
the criticism that followed him.