Faye (Sellers) Hollar

Faye Sellers Hollar, 91, of Kannapolis, passed away August 7, 2024, at her home after a period of declining health.

A funeral service to celebrate Faye’s life will be held at Whitley’s funeral Home at 4:00 PM on Sunday, August 11, with Pastor Aaron Edwards officiating. Her family will receive friends at the funeral home from 3:00 to 4:00 PM Sunday, prior to the funeral service. Her burial will be a private family function.

Faye was born July 14, 1933, in Chesterfield SC, a daughter of the late Mr. Sinclair Sellers and Mrs. Maggie Louise Allen Sellers. In addition to her parents, Faye was preceded in death by her husband, Rev. Willie Lee Hollar, her daughter, Delaine Arico, her brothers, Melton, Ellis and William Sellers and her sisters, Grace Clark, Blanche Sellers and Alice Bertram. Faye served along with her husband at Baptist churches including, Pitts (Concord), Eagle Springs (Eagle Springs), Brookdale (Kannapolis), Mt. Hermon (Waxhaw), and Hopewell (Morganton). She especially enjoyed working with young children, the choirs, and the WMU.

Faye has always especially shown dedication to, and appreciation, concern, and love for her immediate and extended family members. Those expressions were reciprocated among them. Why? Perhaps because the Sellers family reportedly been given a land grant in South Carolina decades before the American revolution. Sinclair Hollar donated land for Thompson Creek Baptist Church, and the old family cemetery is across the road from the site. Faye described the family walking to church and singing songs with other children there.

With the Great Depression, the family had land but no money. They carried water from a spring. Her father worked for the WPA. Faye’s mother died before she was aged three years. Faye’s three sisters took on maternal responsibilities for her upbringing. She also affectionately recalled a caring African American neighboring family with whom she had spent much time. One local US sailor had heard of the home which contained three beautiful sisters, and married Grace.

The family home had caught fire on two occasions. West A Street in Kannapolis became their new home, and Cannon Mills provided income for the males. Blanche and Alice studied and became beauticians and married. Most of her family bought property and had homes within a 3 square block area (almost an enclave) in nearby Enochville.  They actively attended the nascent White Hill Baptist Church.

Faye had met Willie in high school. He had become a friend of her protective favorite brother, William, who died in the Korean War in 1953. They used the bus to date and attend “his family’s” First Baptist Church downtown.  They were married, and she helped him to tame some of his “vices” of the time. Willie was briefly a draftsman for Cannon Mills and Watkins Construction, and then, with George Griffin of Concord, helped draft many local homes, offices, churches, and other major buildings (including the Cabarrus Courthouse, and for the nearby Lutheran Church, and Hermon, Brookdale churches.

Willie decided to study for the ministry, and she supported his progress through years of college, then Southeastern Baptist Seminary (where she also worked in childcare). Across time, she has also worked as a seamstress, in manufacturing, in surgical tool sanitation, and as a homemaker.

Across her later years, she maintained her strong religious beliefs, and approached the end of life with emotional positivity, capacity for humor, and equanimity, in accordance with those beliefs.

With in-home Hospice support, Faye passed away naturally and peacefully during sleep. Celebrate her reunions in heaven!

Faye is survived by her son, William David Hollar of Kannapolis, her beloved grandchildren, Aaron “Ash” Hollar (Jamilee) of Indian Land SC, Whitney Hollar of Charlotte, Bryan Matthews (Melissa) of Concord, and Justin Arico (Samantha). She is also survived by her beloved great-grandchildren, Aiden and Abigail Hollar, and Riley, Austin and Eli Arico.

Online condolences may be left at www.whitleysfuneralhome.com.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made in Faye’s name to First Baptist Church Concord where her husband was ordained for the ministry. First Baptist Church Concord 200 Branchview Dr SE Concord, NC 28025.