Joseph A. Talley

Published 9:53 am Wednesday, September 4, 2013

FRANKLIN – The Reverend Dr. Joseph Addison Talley of Burdette, born to the late Elizabeth Joyner Talley and William Arthur Talley Sr. on March 4, 1918, passed away on Aug. 28, 2013. He was the minister of the Isle of Wight Christian Church until August of 2013 and was an active, ordained minister of The United Church of Christ for seventy years serving its churches in Chicopee Falls and Whitingsville, Massachusetts; Lancaster, New Hampshire; Waterbury, Connecticut (South Congregational) and Richmond (First Congregational Christian), Portsmouth, Suffolk (Liberty Spring where he was Minister Emeritus), Windsor, Franklin, Hopewell, Prince George, Holland and Isle of Wight, Virginia as well as Sunbury, North Carolina.

Talley

Reverend Talley received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University, a Masters of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Masters of Sacred Theology from Andover Newton Theological School in Boston and did doctoral studies at Boston University. He earned a Doctorate of Theology based on those studies and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity by Carolina Christian University.

He was an early pioneer in clinical pastoral care at Massachusetts General Hospital and was among the first to do this work with cancer and tuberculosis patients. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy as a Chaplin at the Oakland California Naval Base Hospital and was the 34th hospital chaplain in the United States to become Board Certified in Clinical Pastoral Care. He was also an Annuitant Visitor for the Board of Pensions of the United Church of Christ for twenty years covering most of Virginia and eastern North Carolina obtaining additional funds from the denomination for retired ministers and their widows for such things as medical bills which was a great source of satisfaction for him.

Reverend Talley held a church, visited the sick and preached at least every other week until he was over ninety-five years old and enjoyed raising peacocks as a hobby for many years. He gave of himself completely and happily in a lifetime of service to those in his family and churches with never a care for money or material gain while visiting attentively the elderly and sick who were homebound or hospitalized yet his primary purpose in living was to prepare and preach sermons.

He is survived by his wife of sixty-six years, Miriam Ayers Talley of Burdette; sons, Kenneth Arthur Talley also of Burdette, James Chase Talley and his wife, Charlotte, of Richmond and Joseph Eugene Talley and his wife, Vibeke, of Hillsborough, North Carolina. He is also survived by grandchildren Benjamin, Kirsten, David and Jonathan Talley.

The funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 7, at Franklin Congregational Christian Church, 412 North High Street, Franklin with the Rev. James Hyatt and Rev. J. J. Ferguson officiating. The committal service will follow immediately at Rosemont Cemetery, Sedley. The family will receive guests at Black Creek Baptist Church Fellowship Hall following the committal. The family visitation will be held 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, September 6, at Wright Funeral Home, 206 West Fourth Avenue, Franklin. www.wrightfuneralhome.org