Lib Willoughby
Elizabeth “Lib” Willoughby, long time
Americus resident, passed away peacefully on January 3,
2021. Born in Griffin, GA, in 1928, Elizabeth “Lib”
Willoughby was the youngest child of the Rev. Albert and
Lucy Hamilton Howard. She attended Mars Hill College
then Mercer College where she met her future husband
Broadus Willoughby, on her first weekend on campus.
After graduation, they were married by her father at
Wrens Baptist Church on October 29, 1949. The newlyweds
moved to Americus in 1950 to open a Western Auto store.
As a homemaker, Lib reared three
girls while volunteering many hours in service to the
Girl Scouts, the Junior Welfare League, and First
Baptist Church, where she was a Sunday school teacher,
Vacation Bible School leader, and president of the
Women’s Missionary Union. Having a lifelong love of
reading, she was an enthusiastic teacher, mentor, and
promoter of Laubach Literacy International, founding a
local chapter in Americus and tutoring reading for Lake
Blackshear Regional Library’s adult literacy program.
Her passion for literacy sent her back to school after
her children were grown to earn a Master’s degree in
reading from Georgia Southwestern College. She then
worked as a reading specialist at South Georgia Tech
until retirement.
Lib was a founding member of
Fellowship Baptist Church in 1972 when the doors of most
white churches were closed to African Americans. She
became the first woman deacon in that church and one of
the first female Southern Baptist deacons in the state
of Georgia.
In addition to reading, Lib loved to
work puzzles, read, play golf and bridge, and to work on
her computer or any other “gadget.” She and Broadus
travelled to over 15 foreign countries, as well as all
fifty states.
She is preceded in death by her
brother Albert Howard and sister Winslow Dolson and
survived by her husband of 72 years, Broadus
Willoughby, as well as her children Lynn Willoughby
(partner, Christopher Baxter) of Highlands, NC; Ginny
Willoughby Bass and Kiel Bass of Clyde, NC; and Windee
Willoughby and John Pittman of Franklin, NC; two
grandchildren, Zeke Bass (Megan) and Shannon Bass Steele
(wife of Andy Steele), and six great grandchildren—Jack,
Cole, and Zoe Bass; and Carter, Caitlin, and Selah
Steele.
A memorial will be held at a future
date.
Submitted by
Ginny Willoughby Bass 1/4/2021
