Cato, Willie T.
Cato, Willie T—Age sixty-eight, September 22, 1991. Survived by wife, Maxine Cato; daughters, Mrs. JoAnn Hutchison, Mrs. Rita Cochrane, Mrs. Amy Hamar; sons Keith Cato, Mark Cato, Clark Cato; ten grandchildren; sister, Mrs. Marion Graves, Decatur, AL. Services will be conducted 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 25, 1991, Granny White Church of Christ. Nephews, Baxter Graves, Granville Graves, E. Lucien Palmer, Chancellor of A.C.S.F. officiating. Entombment at Woodlawn Cross Mausoleum, Clayton Pepper and Carl Robinson officiating. Active pallbearers, nephews. Honorary pallbearers, other relatives and close friends, Board of Directors of the African Christian Schools Foundation, Foundation for Christian Education, past and present directors and teachers at the Great commission School, elders and deacons of Pennsylvania Avenue Church of Christ, elders at Granny White Church of Christ and Shackle Island Church of Christ. Visitation with the family, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Monday; 9:00 a.m-9:00 p.m., Tuesday; and 9:00 a.m. until service time Wednesday at the fellowship hall of Granny White Church of Christ. In lieu of flowers, send donations to African Christian Schools Foundation or Granny White Church of Christ. These donations are to be distributed among Baxter Institute, International Bible College and other schools who train their members to preach. Arrangements by Woodlawn Funeral Home, 383-4754.
Willie T. Cato services tomorrow
Services for Willie T. Cato, sixty-eight, a noted Church of Christ minister and preacher, will be at 2:30 p.m., tomorrow at Granny White Church of Christ, 3805 Granny White Pike.
Mr. Cato, a Nashville resident, died of a heart attack Sunday after a brief address at the International Bible College in Florence, Alabama. Visitation will be at the Granny White church today and tomorrow beginning at 9 a.m. each day. Burial will be in the Woodlawn Cemetery Mausoleum. Mr. Cato’s nephews, Granville Graves of Decatur, Alabama, and Baxter Graves of Bardstown, Kentucky, will officiate at the service, with assistance from E. Lucien Palmer, chancellor of the African Christian Schools Foundation of Nashville.
At the time of his death, Mr. Cato was president of the African Christian Schools Foundation, which raises money for a Church of Christ related college and high school in Nigeria. Mr. Cato, a Nashville, native, had a long involvement in the African Christian Schools program, making several trips to West Africa in the interest of Christian education over the past thirty-one years. With his wife of forty-eight years, Maxine Watts Cato, Mr. Cato donated his vacation time to conduct Bible lectureships and other workshops in Singapore, New Zealand, the Samoan Islands, Fiji, as well as Nigeria and the U.S. In the 1960s, Mr. Cato served as president of the Nashville Christian Institute, traveling and preaching with noted black evangelist Marshall Keeble.
Mr. Cato was minister of several Mid-state congregations during his career, including a sixteen-year tenure at Shackle Island Church of Christ in Hendersonville. He helped found the Happy Hills Boys’ Ranch and the Great Commission School in Nashville. He was a member of Pennsylvania Avenue Church of Christ. He received a B.A. degree from David Lipscomb College and an M.A. from Peabody College. He later taught at David Lipscomb in the sociology and Bible departments.
Survivors, in addition to his wife, include three daughters, JoAnn Hutchison, Rita Cochrane, and Amy Hamar, Nashville; three sons, Keith Cato, Mark Cato, and Clark Cato, Nashville; a sister, Marion Graves, Decatur, Alabama; and ten grandchildren.