Thursday, April 25, 2024
[Nellie] Eunice Heath, age 99, of Leavenworth, WA, went to be with her Lord on June 26, 2022, due to complications from a bad fall June 10.
Eunice was born February 8, 1923, to Robert John Cochran and Lola Miller Cochran in Devol, OK, but they moved shortly to Littlefield, TX. The Dust Bowl and Great Depression forced the family to move to Cypress, California in 1936.
In her Senior year at Anaheim Union High School, Bill Heath, a pastoral student from Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA) preached in the Cypress church. She said, “ He's kind of nice.” They were married a year later, September 4, 1942, after she finished a year at BIOLA.
Bill pastored in southern California for a few years. In 1946, after evangelistic meetings in the Sierra Valley in northern California, six new believers urged the Heaths to come start a church. They came and the congregation in Sierraville grew. They first repaired a deserted church. Later when they built a new one, Eunice helped lay the tongue and groove flooring, with bruised fingernails as proof.
In 1956 they returned to southern California, where Eunice’s love of people and gift for hospitality and compassion was an amazing addition to Bill’s biblical preaching. In 1967 they went as missionaries to the Philippines where again Eunice’s gifts of teaching and loving reached hungry hearts. They retired to Leavenworth, WA in the late 1980’s. Eunice was active in Cascade Mountain Bible Church and Leavenworth Senior Center. In May 2021 she came to Michigan and lived with her daughter Opal Denk in Byron Center, a suburb of Grand Rapids.
Eunice and Bill were a married 56 years before he passed away in 2001. Eunice was also predeceased by daughter Lola Monroe, son-in-law John Denk and grandson Jeremy Denk. She is survived by Tom Monroe, Opal Denk, Tim Heath (Judy), David Heath (Beth), Elizabeth Hammond (Joe), Jonathan Heath (Tamara), Nancy Pruitt (Corey), 17 grandchildren and 32 great grandchildren.
A service will be held August 6, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. at Cascade Mountain Bible Church, 11025 Chumstick Highway, Leavenworth, WA. All her friends are welcome to attend and stay for dessert afterward.
