Christine Merritt Kivett

Christine Merritt Kivett, 97, of 801 Walking Stick Trail, entered into Heaven's Pearly Gates to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019.

Her homegoing service will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7, at Full Gospel Chapel, 1010 McKoy St., Clinton, with the Rev. James Easter officiating. Interment will follow in the Rowan Baptist Church Cemetery.

The family will receive friends from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6, at Crumpler-Honeycutt Funeral Home.

Mrs. Kivett was born in Sampson County, to the late Alston Caraway Merritt and Armelia Tew Merritt on Dec. 19, 1921. She married the love of her life, the late Robert L. Kivett, on Sept. 9, 1941.

She and Rev. Kivett pastored Full Gospel Chapel Church for over 60 years. They enjoyed sharing Jesus with others, often with music. They were the "first" inductees into the Sampson County Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Together they served in the prison ministry for over 47 years.

Mrs. Kivett believed in working hard. In her earlier years, she worked in sewing factories in Sampson County and always made production. When she and Mr. Kivett founded Kivett's Church Furniture in 1958, she continued working days at the sewing factory and worked at night upholstering furniture. She eventually joined her husband full time in the business, where she continued to work until the age of 92. Although homebound her last five years, she continued to share God's goodness with friends and family.

In addition to her parents and her husband, she was preceded in death by two children, Bobby Lee Kivett and Carolyn Kivett; step-grandson, Shannon Huggard; sisters, Pauline M. Boswell and Sentell M. Burgess; brothers, Robert, Walter and Everette Merritt.

Survivors include a son, Robert Jerol Kivett and wife Telia of Salemburg; two grandsons, Jason Chesnutt Kivett of Salemburg and Joshua Anderson Kivett of Charleston, S.C.; and a step-grandson, Brennon Huggard of Roseboro.