ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, November 7, 1996             TAG: 9611070055
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER

SHE BREATHED LIFE INTO HER BIBLE, CHURCH

HER HUSBAND IS PERHAPS the Roanoke Valley's best-known clergyman. But in her passing, popular Sunday school teacher Pat Fuller leaves a spiritual legacy as well.

Wilhelmina "Pat" Fuller, whose popular Sunday school class at First Baptist Church on Third Street enrolled more than 300 members, died Wednesday after a two-year battle with cancer.

Fuller, 66, was the wife of the church's pastor, the Rev. Charles G. Fuller, for the past 44 years. They moved here in 1961, when he became senior pastor at First Baptist.

"Pat Fuller has been an inspiration to me throughout our marriage," Charles Fuller wrote in 1986 when his wife was named Roanoke Valley mother of the year in the family life category.

A lifetime of service to her family, her church and her community were recorded in a story on that award, and reiterated Wednesday in the comments of those who knew her.

Fuller chose to give up a full-time job after having children, but did extensive volunteer work at Community and Lewis-Gale hospitals.

She also wrote poetry - some of which was published in a volume that included her husband's sermons. Proceeds from that book, which went into several printings, were donated to the church.

Most of all, however, she was known as an effective Sunday school leader who used humor and practical applications to bring the Bible to life throughout three decades of teaching, friends said.

For years, hers has been the largest Bible class at First Baptist. Its 300 participants dwarfed the total membership of many churches.

She continued teaching until illness forced her to step down about a year ago.

Fuller would have said her most important roles, however, were those of wife and mother, said Doyal Spence, minister of choral music at First Baptist for the past 31 years. "She was a real role model for the entire church," he said.

Over the years, Fuller had been active in many facets of the church's life, including its music program and as a leader in the Women's Missionary Union.

Her church involvement was a mission she undertook in spite of a series of physical ailments, including painful back problems and symptoms related to the polio she contracted in her youth.

Her death "means to me that she is receiving a brand-new body," Spence said, "and her suffering is over. There is triumph in that [and] we can rejoice" even in the sadness and grief the whole congregation feels, he said.

A funeral service is scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. in the church. It will be led by Spence and Charles Ward, another longtime pastoral associate to Charles Fuller. The family will receive friends and church members today from 3 until 5 p.m., and from 7 until 9 p.m at the church.

In addition to her husband, Fuller is survived by three sons and daughters-in-law, and six grandchildren.

LENGTH: Medium:   61 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  (headshot) Pat Fuller. color.