Avis Lawing

Mrs. Avis Bodenheimer Lawing, 94, of Winston-Salem, passed away at Vienna Village Assisted Living in Pfafftown Friday morning, October 20, 2017. She was one month shy of her 95th birthday.

She was born in the family home on Bank St. in the West Salem Community near Old Salem on November 27, 1922. As the youngest of four children she attended Granville Elementary and later attended R. J. Reynolds High School where she graduated at the age of sixteen in 1939. After graduation she attended Draugh's Business School.

During World War II she performed secretarial duties for the law firm of Womble Carlyle, and soon after the war she continued similar tasks at the Veteran's Administration for the Chief Medical Officer.

She met William Lawing at a boarding house in North Winston a year before the outbreak of the war. While her future husband was an Army medic in England and Belgium, she maintained a constant letter-writing correspondence for the duration of the war.

Avis married William on January 3, 1946, in Asheville, one week after his return from Europe. They lived in a duplex apartment house in North Winston and moved into a house in Ardmore in 1951 where they raised three children.

When her husband began his own barbershop in 1958, Avis became his accountant for the duration of his ownership which lasted until 1989. When her youngest child went to college in 1975 she returned to work for the Veteran's Administration for ten more years.

Mrs. Lawing was an avid church member her entire life. As a child she attended Salem Baptist Church and later joined North Winston as a teenager and followed the congregation in 1967 when it moved to its current location on Petree Rd. as Northwest Baptist. She taught Sunday School for over seventy years and took pride in the fact that all three of her children became educators and taught a collective one hundred plus years.

Mrs. Lawing was predeceased by her parents, Charles Roscoe Bodenheimer and Cora Baity Bodenheimer Strader, husband William Lydia Lawing, two brothers, Kenneth Bodenheimer and Virgil Bodenheimer, and a sister, Lois Carter Perryman.

Surviving are a daughter, Linda Lawing Hargrave and husband Loftin of Winston-Salem, two sons, Bill Lawing and wife Cynthia of Davidson, and Barry Lawing of Winston-Salem, five grandchildren, Ashley Maggio and husband Jason, Brittany Davis, Mei Ellis, Gloria Marzoug and husband Hamed, and Christina Lawing, and four great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be conducted in her honor, Monday, October 23, 2017 at Northwest Church officiated by the Reverend Brad Mullis. Interment will follow at Forsyth Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends Sunday, October 22, 2017 from 6 PM - 8 PM at Hayworth-Miller Silas Creek Chapel. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Winston-Salem Foundation, 751 W Fourth St. Suite 200, Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Online condolences may be made at www.Hayworth-Miller.com.

Previous Events

Cemetery Details

Memorial Contribution