Lillie Geraldine Porter Hutchinson Whitenack went home to be with the LORD on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 following a five month illness. She was 96 years of age. She was preceded in death by husbands James Hutchinson and Harold I. Whitenack.
Lillie was born on June 3, 1921 in Throopsville, Cayuga County, NY to George Lewis and Iva May (Mead) Porter.
Lillie attended a one-room school in Central New York near Montezuma, NY. She and her sister, Betty Porter Sayre, were the first generation in their family to attend high school and college. Lillie graduated from Houghton College in 1951. She attended Menges Business School in Auburn, NY, before spending seven years as a clerk in the local Metropolitan Life Insurance office.
In response to God’s working in her heart, Lillie joined The Bible Club Movement to reach children in the public schools with the Gospel. She spent 15 years going from school to school teaching the Bible. The door closed to this ministry in the 1960’s.
But, an unexpected door opened. James Hutchinson, one of the representatives with the Mission (BCM) had lost his wife and was very lonely. Jim proposed to Lille near Lake Ontario in a blinding snow storm in 1968, and they were married. Jim had just retired and was full of plans to visit missionaries. Lillie went with Jim and they visited 30 foreign countries over the next ten years.
After Jim died at age 100, Lillie married Harold Whitenack in December of 2006. Lillie moved from Moneta, VA to Honey Brook and into Tel Hai Retirement Community. On November 16, 2016 Harold died. Lillie continued to live there until her death.
Lillie was preceded in death by her parents and sister, Betty Sayre.
She is survived by a niece, Sandra Glenney, wife of David Glenney and a nephew, David Sayre, husband of Judy Sayre, by their children and by their children and great grandchildren of Jim Hutchinson and Harold Whitenack.
A funeral service will be held on Monday, April 23, 2018 at 11 AM from the Chapel of the Tel Hai Retirement Community, 1200 Tel Hai Circle, Honey Brook, Pa. with Pastor Tim Herr officiating. Interment will be held at Valley Forge Memorial Gardens in King of Prussia. A calling hour will be held one hour prior to the service.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in the memory of Lillie to the Tel Hai Care Assurance Fund, PO Box 190, Honey Brook, Pa. 19344-0190.
Arrangements by The Labs Funeral Home, Inc. of Honey Brook, Pa.