This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

3b
^5
r? 2 ? o r* ?*;
g* P * -. u> C
>*4 U1 .jj* ?Nl	2?
o' 52
I/I
X
at
Cv.r ^u\v
MRS. LAURA BUTLER TURNER?A GRATEFUL APPRECIATION, j
Among those who have recently paired to the ?great beyond? the name of lira. Laura Butler Turner deserves spejlal mention, worthy to be placed In the capn-dar of God?s best and'trjjest saints, wot that she achieved greatness according to the standard or the world, but the gres'-er ..part of her whole noble life was long battle of self-denial, and her ape'iai work in her last yearB was the tender vel-fare of God?s poor. She was a modernist. Elizabeth of Hungary, a feminine St. Francis of Assisi, or perhaps the best resemblance was like unto Dorcas, a wonan "full of good works and almsdeeds whch she did."
Mrs. Turner was born in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on January 15, 1843, daughter,of W. S. Butler, of that city. She ub wealthy, cultured, and beautiful in pr-son, fitted to adorn any circle, yet ne was deaf to all worldly allurements, a; d, like her Lord and Master, "went ab( it doing good." She was married to J r. Robert J. Turner in November, 1866, a; d spent the first years of her married lift n her native State. Her health gradual ,y declining, Dr. Turner decided to let^e Tennessee for the health-giving coast tif Mississippi, so they moved to the beautiful little town of Bay St. Louis, whtfe they llvcui Tor over thirty vw?. - Fori*. ^ the death of four lovely children turn'll her thoughts more directly to heaven^ things, and inspired her deeply const-crated life. Coming to Mississippi, she af. onoe began her active missionary labors. Dr. Turner at an early date a^ ranged for a Methodist preacher to hol| services at the Bay, as he and his wif? were ardent followers of John Wesley, and Mrs. Turner was indefatigable in her endeavors to start a Church organization. Under her hospitable, truly Christian roof at Bay St, Louis was the ?prophet?s chamber,? and how many weary itlner-1 rants have been sheltered there in peaceful covert!
Mrs. Turner was the pastor's strong right hand, and her energy and faith in God never wavered. When the parsonage was built, she was President of the Home MIbbIou Society, and used to laughingly say that she "could not buy a new bonnet j until the preacher?s house was out of. debt.? Nor did she. All her money, all j her thoughts, all her time were given to * further the kingdom of Go<^r*VVhen the *
oM3o^r
present pretty church at Bay St. Louil was built, she was the treasurer, and her interest in Its completion was Intense. A pretty little story relates that she wrote to Mr. L. N. Dantzler the First?revered in the Church for his great philanthropy? asking him for a contribution. Mr. Dantzler put the letter in his pocket, and for a while overlooked it, until one day when giving the coat to a poor tramp he found Mrs. Turner?s epistle. Immediately he sent a generous check, and at that very time Mrs. Turner was making special prayer for money for the building, and of course took Mr. DanUler?s response as God?s Immediate answer. Besides her laborB in Church uocleties, her dearest work was among the people of the canning factory in Upper Bay St. Louis near the Jordan lilver. She Instigated the building of a chapel there and worked Incessantly for those poor, ignorant people as long as she lived among them, visited them in sickness and In health, held services every Sunday afternoon, and made her home a commissary department where their temporal wants were always aupplied. Never have I known one who so literally gave to the poor, and surely her reward is great. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one ot the least of these,
. . . ye have done it unto me.?
Over a year ago she, her husband, and their only living son and his family moved . to JiuilusouvUlo, Tox. Brou there, with fullness of years and labors upon her, among strange new faces, she resumed her loved employ and organized a Sunday school among the poor in the outskirts of the city. On January 11, 1913, God called her home. Her husband tenderly apprised her of her approaching translation, and ahe said that she was ready?her long, useful life was her preparation to meet the "King in his beauty." By her own request, she was laid away under the Texas soil, there to await the resurrection morning. All the poor children of her Sunday Bchool attended her funeral in a body, ?the sight of which was very affecting??so wrote her bereaved husband. Brother Tally, of ? the Methodist Church, and Brother Ford, of the Presbyterian Church, conducted the funeral services. It was my precious privilege to be Mrs. Turner's pastor in Bay St. Louis for a full quadrennlum, among my happiest ministerial yearB, and In my lieart and In that of my family 'the memory ot this departed saint will
ever abide as one of life's choicest treas-
ures.^^u. X yaN\Ci''X .