Joe Earl Gaddy

             WADESBORO – On Thursday, December 28, 2023, Mr. Joe Earl Gaddy, 95, passed away peacefully at Anson Health and Rehab in Wadesboro.

            There will be a memorial service at 11:00 AM Saturday, January 6, 2024, at Calvary Episcopal Church. Inurnment will follow in the church columbarium.

            The family will greet friends following the service in the parish hall of the church.

            Joe was born July 17, 1928, in the Deep Creek Community of Anson County, NC and was a son of the late David Eugene Gaddy and the late Lilly Shepherd Gaddy. He was a graduate of Deep Creek High School and a veteran of the Untied States Army.

            His service with the Army led him to continue serving in the Army reserves, retiring after 36 years with the rank of Sergeant Major. He was proud of his service to his country.

            As a young man, he became employed with Pee Dee Electric, starting out as a lineman. Joe along with his fellow lineman were pioneers in rural electricity for Anson County. They did all the work by hand, digging for the poles, raising the poles and adding the wiring. He retired in 1995 as Wadesboro District Manager for Pee Dee Electric.

            Joe was very civically minded. He was a member of Wadesboro Civitan Club for many years. He served on the Wadesboro Town Council from 1977 until 1985 and then as mayor from 1985 until 1999. His service to the citizens of Wadesboro was and remains impeccable and fair.

            He was a long-time member of All Souls Episcopal Church in Ansonville and Calvary Episcopal Church in Wadesboro. He was faithful in his service at the church and often served as a lay reader for services. He especially loved singing in the choir at Calvary and he last sang with them on November 26^th, faithfully until his health prohibited.

            Joe enjoyed being a member of Twin Valley Country Club, where he enjoyed a good round of golf, especially with his late brother-in-law, Ralph Hargett.

            He was most grateful for his upbringing in the Deep Creek Community where he learned the importance of hard work and learning to plow the fields on the farm with a mule pulled plow. He still enjoyed having a small garden at his home in Wadesboro.

            He was married to Mattie Tyson Gaddy, and they enjoyed a beautiful life together traveling, sharing quiet times out on the family farm, worshiping and singing together at church and spending time with their family.

            He leaves to cherish his memory, his son and daughter-in-law, Ray L. and Mary Beth Gaddy; his grandchildren, Christie Thuleen and husband, Tony and Mark Lisenby and wife, Jennifer; his great-grandchildren, Ava Thuleen, Grant Thuleen, Anistyn Lisenby, Cannon Lisenby and Milea Gulledge; his great-great-grandchildren, Emma and Aubrey; his sisters, Mary Shepherd Trexler, Lib Huntley and Sue Durham; his sisters-in-law, Dot Gaddy, Dot Tyson, Ella Hargett and Betty Tyson and his nieces and nephews and their families.

            In addition to his parents and his wife, he was preceded in death by his sister and brother, Emma Jean Gilbert and William Marshall Gaddy.

            Joe’s family is most grateful to the staff of Anson Health and Rehab and the staff of Anson Community Hospice, a Division of Richmond County Hospice, for the professional and loving way they cared for him.

            In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials be made to Calvary Episcopal Church, 308 E. Wade St, Wadesboro, NC 28170 or to Anson Community Hospice, c/o Richmond County Hospice, 1119 N US 1 HWY, Rockingham, NC 28379.

            The arrangements are in care of Leavitt Funeral Home and online condolences may be made at www.leavittfh.com