Obuary for William "Bill" Lawrence Gay | Munn Funeral Home & Crematory, Inc.

Contents:

• WILLIAM LAWRENCE GAY OBUARY
• WILLIAM GAY DI AT 70; WRER TIED TO TENNSEE
• WILLIAM "WILL" GAY
• WILLIAM "BILL" LAWRENCE GAY
• OBUARY OF WILLIAM G. GAY

WILLIAM LAWRENCE GAY OBUARY

It is wh ep sorrow that we announce the ath of William Lawrence Gay formerly of Kston, North Carola, who passed away on March 13, 2023, at the age of 66, leavg to mourn fay and iends. Leave a sympathy msage to the fay the gutbook on this memorial page of William Lawrence Gay to show was preceased by: his parents, Marilynn Ferrell Gay and Joseph Daniel Gay; and his father--law At Rae Johnson Sr..

He is survived by: his wife Phyllis Johnson Gay of Atlantic Beach, NC; his children, Palmer At Gay of Atlantic Beach, NC, Kara Johnson Gay and Keeley Ferrell Gay of Charlton, SC; his mother--law Ellen Brson Johnson of Kston, NC; and his siblgs, Lynn Gay Crawford of Kston, NC, Joseph Daniel Gay, Jr. (Sara Beth) of Wilmgton, NC and Mark O'Brian Gay (Carol) of Lville, NC. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWilliam Gay Di at 70; Wrer Tied to TennseeFeb.

29, 2012William Gay, a self-tght novelist om ral Tennsee who emerged om obscury his late 50s wh crilly praised books the Southern Gothic style, died last Thursday at his home, a log b Hohenwald, southwt of Nashville.

WILLIAM GAY DI AT 70; WRER TIED TO TENNSEE

Gay’s most recent publisher, MacAdam/ son of a sharecropper who spent much of his workg life blue-llar jobs, Mr. Gay wrote about stic Tennsee wh an si observer’s eye for lol lor and a hyperbolist’s light regnal idsyncrasi. Gay created a hometown for his fiercely eccentric, furly motivated or morally challenged characters — Ackerman’s Field, Tenn.

WILLIAM "WILL" GAY

Gay wrote “The Paperhanger, ” a short story about a man who killed a ltle girl bee she had looked at him funny. Gay’s prose, not exactly purple, was often ght wh mythic ronance — that serpent, for example — which sued the amb parabl of good and evil that drew him. Gay to the readg world beyond lerary journals, he created a battle between Dallas Hard, a malevolent bootlegger, and Nathan Wer, the young rpenter Hard hir to build a honky-tonk on the property he has taken over om s crippled owner.

Gay’s imagatn, ” Richard Bernste wrote The New York Tim Book Review about “Provc of Night, ” “giv this book s nsirable narrative power but also mak far-fetched, termtently zany, somethg about four-fifths Flkner wh ‘The Omen’ fillg the rt. “Gay succsfully this form’s abily to unsettle rears, forcg them to see anew darker aspects of humany.

” BerkleyWilliam Elbert Gay was born Hohenwald on Oct. Gay’s fay.

WILLIAM "BILL" LAWRENCE GAY

A rear om a young age, William Gay was troduced to the work of the novelist Thomas Wolfe by a high school teacher, and he disvered the Sig paperback edns of tl by Southern wrers like Flannery O’Connor that would lor his own fictn. Gay said of a llectn of O’Connor’s short stori an terview last year wh the Tennsee Lerary Project, an archive at Middle Tennsee State Universy. Gay had bee a full-time wrer, but as a figure on the lerary scene, ved to wrers’ nferenc and llege mp, he was a stranger a strange land.

OBUARY OF WILLIAM G. GAY

Gay’s marriage, to Dianne Bowen, end divorce. And Chris; two dghters, Lee Gay Warren and Lra Shapiro; a brother, Cody; eight grandchildren; and four step-grandchildren.

’ ” A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 22 of the New York edn wh the headle: William Gay Di at 70; Wrer Tied to Tennsee. William “Will” Lee Gay, age 57, of Alford, FL, passed away peacefully on Friday, Augt 6, 2021 at Ascensn Sacred Heart Bay Panama Cy, FL. He was preced ath by his parents, Millard Lee Gay and Mary Melenz; other father, Ben Blackburn; and brother, Darrel Williams Jr.