Friar Melissa Lawrence

Melissa Friar Lawrence

Benton - Melissa Friar Lawrence, 40, was born in Beaumont, Texas on April 13, 1980 and went to be with the Lord on March 7, 2021 due to a tragic car wreck. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday March 10, 2021 at Asbury Methodist Church at 11:00 a.m., with Matt Rawle officiating. The family will receive friends prior to the service at 10:00 a.m.

Melissa graduated from Airline High School in 1998. After attending Bossier Parish Community College, she began a fifteen year career in operations and engineering management at US Cellular in Bossier City Louisiana.

She was predeceased by her husband, William Thomas Lawrence; maternal grandparents, William Albert Nohse and Frances Rickett Nohse; paternal grandparents, Gordon and Geneva Friar; and aunt, Rebecca Lynn Nohse.

Left to cherish her memory are her daughters, Kylie Mackenzie Lawrence and Katie Grace Lawrence; and fiancé, Brad Johns; mother, Debra Nohse Friar and her father, Gregory Earl Friar and wife Rhonda; sister, Jennifer Helen Friar; brother, Matthew Nohse Friar and wife Amanda and their children, Karson and Kade; aunts, Marsha Pugh, Charlotte Gates and her husband Bill and numerous cousins who loved her dearly.

Also left to cherish her memory are mother and father in law, Ronald R. Lawrence and Deborah Wallace, sister in law, Misty Hernandez and children Isabella and Sofia.

Melissa was a generous soul who lived her life by loving her neighbor as herself. When her neighbor, fondly known as Pops, needed to go to an assisted care facility, she insisted he stay with her at her home. Pops not only became a bonus grandfather to Kylie and Katie Grace but a treasured friend to Melissa. Widowed at an early age, she had recently begun to form a foundation for widows and orphans to assist them in paying bills to ensure that no one else's wife had to bear and suffer in time of need.

Melissa's life was cut short, but her legacy of love, kindness and generosity to all will live on. She was a living example of laying down one's life for her friends and family and truly anyone who needed her help. "No one crossed her path that was not better for it." Her greatest role was that of a mother. Her love and devotion to her girls Kylie and Katie Grace was to be admired.

Pallbearers will be Tabetha Jackson, Justin Burton, Weyland Lawson, Linc Farrington, Jamey Reeves, Nick Parker, Liam Rogers and BJ Ray. Honorary Pallbearers will be Sam Balentine, Clint Delaune, Kade Wheat, and Brock Moss.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be made to The Fallen Linemen's Fund and The Benton Riding Club.

John 14:1 Do not let your hearts be troubled....you know the way to the place where I am going.