Lillian Faye Akins Gotcher, 91, of Ballinger died Sunday, January 4, 2009 at Ballinger Memorial Hospital. The memorial service will be 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at Hopewell Baptist Church near Winters. Her brothers, Ferris Akins and Bynum Akins, and nephew, Marty Akins, will officiate. She will be privately interred at the Wilson Mausoleum in Wolfforth.

Lillian was born in McCaulley, Fisher County on March 5, 1917 to the late Martin Luther and Beulah Mae Akins. She graduated from McCaulley High School and attended the University of Mary Hardin Baylor at Belton. During World War II, she was employed by the FBI in Washington D.C. and El Paso. She met Howard Gotcher while working at General Dynamics in Fort Worth, and they married in 1951 in Abilene where her parents lived. They had one son, Mark, and lived in Fort Worth until Howard's death in 1961.

Lillian and her son moved to Lubbock to live with her sister, Cleo. She attended LVN school and worked for 30 years at Highland Hospital in Lubbock. She later cared for her sisters, Cleo and Icey, who lived in the home they all shared. She was saved as a girl and baptized at McCaulley Baptist Church. She was a longtime member of Elgin Avenue Baptist Church and later a member of Lubbock Baptist Temple. In 2006, her son died, and she moved to Ballinger to live with her brother, Ferris Akins and his wife. She joined the church her son pastors, Hopewell Baptist Church. She was a caring Christian lady and a good nurse.

Preceding Lillian in death were her parents, husband, son, three brothers, twin sister, Lillie Dale Russo, and five other sisters.

She is survived by two brothers, Ferris Akins of Ballinger and Bynum Akins of Garland; three sisters, Nola Vymola of Forney, Corinne Pinson of Warner Robins, Ga., and Martha Lewellen of Austin. She is also survived by other Akins relatives, Gotcher relatives, and many nieces and nephews.

She had been a resident of Runnels County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Ballinger since May 2007. Our thanks to all of our friends there for the good care she received and the very special attention from Bell Nieto.

Arrangements are with Lange Funeral Home of Ballinger. Guests may register at www.ballingerfuneralhome.com.