"Mama" Blanche Faye Shoemake
April 18, 1916 – May 16, 2007
We mourn the passing of Blanche Faye “Mama Blanche” Shoemake, wife of F.V. Shoemake (deceased 2004), founding Pastor of The First United Pentecostal Church of San Jose, California. Blanche and F.V. married in December of 1932, and were devoted partners in marriage and ministry, including the pastorate of several congregations in Oklahoma and California .
Blanche possessed a gentle spirit, and had a kind word for everyone with whom she had contact. She was an accomplished artist and writer, creator of many beautiful paintings as well as author of an autobiography. She will be deeply missed by her family, church, and many friends in the community.
April 18, 1916 – May 16, 2007
We mourn the passing of Blanche Faye “Mama Blanche” Shoemake, wife of F.V. Shoemake (deceased 2004), founding Pastor of The First United Pentecostal Church of San Jose, California. Blanche and F.V. married in December of 1932, and were devoted partners in marriage and ministry, including the pastorate of several congregations in Oklahoma and California .
Blanche possessed a gentle spirit, and had a kind word for everyone with whom she had contact. She was an accomplished artist and writer, creator of many beautiful paintings as well as author of an autobiography. She will be deeply missed by her family, church, and many friends in the community.
Blanche is survived by four children: son Rev. Jimmy Shoemake (San Jose, CA) and three daughters Nita Hodges (Chula Vista, CA), Dayna Jones (Austin, TX) and Regina Theobald (Discovery Bay, CA); two brothers: Rev. James Kilgore (Houston, TX) and Joseph Kilgore (Sacramento, CA); two sisters: Omeda Nichols (Sacramento, CA) and Odetta Wilburn (McAllister, OK); 16 grandchildren; 32 great-grandchildren; and two great great-grandchildren.
Visitation will from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. Monday, May 21, at Lima Family Santa Clara Mortuary, 466 N. Winchester Blvd. A memorial service will be held at The First United Pentecostal Church (First Church San Jose), 878 Boynton Ave. , San Jose , CA , Tuesday, May 22, at 10 a.m.
Please share your Mama Blanche memories and thoughts by commenting.
16 comments:
For a tribute to Mama Blanche Shoemake, please visit www.firstchurchsanjose.com/blancheshoemake.html.
What a loving Christian lady was Aunt Blanche. Before my mother, Roma, went to be with the Lord, we knew of the loving ways of her special aunt.
My prayers & thoughts are with you as you go through this time of loss. May the Lord's Strength & Peace be your comfort at this time.
Wade Estes
Only heaven knows how many souls this dear lady helped lead to Christ.
A wonderful family all around and we loved them dearly.
Hearing of several of the pioneers of this Awesome Truth that have gone to the otherside, I wonder if their burden is taken up by others. We must stand in the gap!
Love all of you at SanJose! The place our LORD welcomed me back home.
Sis. Naomi
I have known Sis.Blanche Shoemake since I was 7 years old when my family moved to San Jose,Ca. in March of 1956. She has always been a great Lady to look up for Christian living. Although my Grandmother Sis. Myra Merrill had the same sweet spirit of God. I am so glad that I had these two Great Ladies of God in my Life. They will be greatly missed. But, they are with the LORD now. May God Bless and Comfort all the Shoemake and Kilgore Families in this hour.
Love,
Nelda Gay Merrill
Nelda Gay Merrill
We are so sorry that we cannot attend the services celebrating the passing of such a wonderful saint of God. Her loving kindness and sweet, gentle spirit will be greatly missed. Our prayers are with you, her family, as you grieve her loss. But we also know that we will meet with her again on that great glorious day when we gather around the throne of heaven in celebration!
We will all Miss Sister Blanche Shoemake so very much. She was truly a "Woman of God". She had the sweetest sprit, and always had a kind and encouraging word for everyone. She always made you feel special, and her great love for the Lord was shared with us all.
It was such a blessing for her family to have her most of their adult lives. We pray that God will give peace and strength to the family, and we are very grateful that we were able to have our lives touched by "Mama Blanche"
This must be one of the best months in heaven, first Sis Ursham, & now Sis Shoemake. I can only imagine what is happening in Heaven right now.
What a heritage and memories, these loved one's have given all of us
May Gods peace be with you families right now.
The Christian family (Berg's & Frost)
7th Generation Pentecost
What a day of rejoicing that will be..when we all see Jesus....!!!
I think about Sis Blanche Shoemake with much love and respect. I honor and thank her & Bro. Voar "Papa" Shoemake for coming to San Jose and founding the San Jose First United Pentecostal Church. If it wasn't for them, I don't know where I would be for it was the Lord that lead me to the San Jose church & raised my son Jason West. I think about Sister Blanche reuniting in heaven with Bro. Voar Shoemake and being with Jesus! What a day of rejoicing!
She was a great great lady, gentle soft spirit and always a kind word and always full of love and tenderness.
Heaven has just received one of the finest ladies I have ever had the privilege of knowing.
Our prayers are with the Shoemake & Kilgore family and may the Lord comfort you at this time.
To me, Aunt Blanche always held a place of royal stature in my mind’s eye, as one of the leading ladies of Pentecost. I consider it the highest honor to have been privileged to be blessed by her love and attention for most of my life. With so much talent, so much grace and personality, always appearing to act with angelic inspiration, it might be easy to think that she was too good to be true—but she was genuine! Knowing that she lived and breathed just like the rest of us, what might explain her “otherworldly perfection” was the result of her being sold out to her savior and committed to the cause of Christ and to the needs of the church and her family. What an incredible example of a Christian, a pastor’s wife, a mother, a grandmother, a teacher, a saint!
Here are just a few of the many ways she impacted my life-
Having watched her example through the years of reaching out to meet and greet people in the sanctuary before each service, I have tried to do the same to help others feel that someone cared and noticed that they had to come to the House of God and to hear of their needs and their victories. As much as we might want to stay in the comfort zone of our own little circle of family and friends, I believe Aunt Blanche knew what was more pleasing to the Lord. Aunt Blanche was letting others see Christ through her actions and words and I have to believe that the Lord was always pleased by her faithfulness to this part of her ministry.
What an incredible and inspiring teacher she was! I have often recounted her half of a Sunday School lesson that she taught together with Uncle Voar while we were still in the old sanctuary.(I can still picture it in my mind). She spoke about our options for handling adversity in life. She bounced a rubber ball off to the side of the podium and showed us how by being flexible and pliable we can bounce back from problems that come our way. Then, she stopped short of dropping a piece of crystal, which we all knew would have resulted in a shattered mess of broken pieces. We have choices in times of adversity—either keep our hearts and minds pliable in the Master’s hands or harden ourselves and allow the circumstances of life to break us into pieces. Her object lesson was simple, but had profound truths and I believe that this lesson, as well as her years of teaching, has had a lasting impact for many, many people. The half will never really be told.
There are no words to describe the selfless giving to others and to the work of God by Unlce Voar and Aunt Blanche that I saw in action time and time and time again throughout my life. And I’m quite certain that I only saw only a speck on the tip of the iceberg that would represent their true giving of themselves and their finances. Truly the world has been impacted by their sacrifices and by the igniting of the flame of giving and sacrifice in others by their living example. Personally, my children benefited financially, emotionally and spiritually by the almost weekly “little somethings” that were placed in their hands before church services for a season of time. We’ll never forget those kind and generous gifts of love and we try to follow the example set before us by being sensitive and responsive to the needs of others.
The love and devotion Aunt Blanche showed to her husband, her children and their families and to her extended family has set a shining example to strive for, though I know I’ll always fall short. The lives she nurtured as a wife, a mother and a grandmother have had a lasting impact on me personally and on all of my family. I have been so highly favored by the Lord by having the love and spiritual nurturing of Aunt Blanche, Uncle Voar and so many of their children and grandchildren over the past forty-five or so years. I am grateful that I was allowed to be so deeply touched by the life and living legacy of this very special woman of God.
Our profound loss is Heaven’s gain—nonetheless, I will miss sweet, beautiful Aunt Blanche.
I truly believe that God knew where He needed to send my family to kow His true love. FUPC San Jose. I have been truly blessed to have known and loved Mamma Blanchie Faye and Poppa Shoemake. Jimmy and Bobbie Shoemake will always and forever be my Pastor and Pastor's wife in my heart of hearts. To have my Christian foundation laid by such pioneers is truly a blessing. My sons and I will never forget the love that we felt and continue to feel about the Shoemake family. They say home is where the heart is and FUPC will always be my home.
My thoughts and prayers are with my FUPC family and especially to the Shoemake family.
love always,
Sis. Arlene Burdick and family
My life is forever changed, enriched and blessed because of the friendship of my pastor and his wife.
Elder Shoemake’s wisdom was unparalleled and Sister Blanche had a way about her that was exceptional.
She took the job that God gave her and grew it as she would a garden; cultivating, planting, watering, weeding, nourishing and harvesting. She created an environment of acceptance and made it easy for people to come in and hear about Jesus. She made everyone feel valued and important to God.
Her own brand of encouragement seemed to come so naturally, and I knew I wanted some of that. I decided to watch her and to figure out her “secret for success”. Words are not adequate to describe the “graciousness” I observed. Not as the world knows grace but as God defines it. My eyes observed the impact she had on so many lives over the years. What an honor to know her and be changed by her life.
God Bless and strengthen each of you, her family and her church family and the many others whose lives she enriched.
You will be truly miss and we loved you.
Monica Carter and The Morris family
We will continue to keep the Shoemake Family in our prayers. May God comfort and be with them during this time.. God bless.
Tricia
I first came to know Sister Blanche Shoemake when my family started attending their church in San Jose at the age of 5 years old. What I remember was the gentleness of her spirit and the feeling always of unconditional love from her and Elder Shoemake.
They were my pastors into my teen years. I appreciate all the love they showed me and the prayers they prayed for me and my family during a very difficult time in my life as my grandmother and my mother were facing life threatening illnesses. It was their gentle support and love that helped a 9 year old girl face one of my hardest battles as a child I had ever faced.
My prayers are with the family and friends that will miss her sweet and gentle spirit. I look forward to that great reunion in the sky!
Love,
Sharon White-Campbell
Mama Blanche Shoemake:
Heaven's Jewel
Love, Class, Grace, Elegance, Meekness, Gentleness, Kindness, Compassion, Faithfulness, and a genuine smile were just a few of the ornaments that adorned Sis. Mama Blanche Shoemake's life. To me she was the embodiment of a Proverbs 31 woman, whose description in Scripture has forever seemed an impossible feat to attain and yet Sis. Blanche Shoemake did so with such natural ease. To see her, to listen to her, to interact with her was always such an honor. Her legacy will live on here and throughout eternity with every life she's touched with Christ's love whether directly or indirectly. Our lives have been so greatly blessed to observe her Christ-like beauty displayed again and again, even in the latter days of her life. Truly, her price was far above rubies!
"Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard [it], and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels;" Mal 3:16-17
Shannon Evans
I'm so sorry about Sis. Shoemake.
The Shoemake family paid a great part in my family living for God. I am from Morris, Okla., my mom, Inez Vaughan Wasson just passed away in June. She and my dad loved the Shoemake family so much.
God has a rich reward for her and there is no trouble there.
Shirley Wasson Dominy (Houston, Tx.)
Post a Comment