Rachel Held Evans
The funeral service for Rachel Held Evans, a Bryan College graduate and Dayton resident who became a leading writer on Christian issues, will be Saturday in Chattanooga.
It will be at 2 p.m. at First-Centenary United Methodist Church and will be open to the public.
The funeral will also be live streamed, her husband, Dan Evans, said. It can be seen on her popular website rachelheldevans.com/funeral.
Mr. Evans said, "I want anyone who would gain some small amount of solace from this imperfect ritual in the face of massive loss to have a chance to do so,"
The body will lie in state at the church one hour before the funeral.
She will be laid to rest Sunday in Rhea Memory Gardens in Dayton.
Ms. Evans died May 4 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville after first being treated for an infection. She went into the hospital in mid-April with what was described as flu plus UTI issues and had a severe reaction to medication. She had been placed in a medically induced coma.
She was born in Birmingham, Ala., on June 8, 1981 and moved to Dayton in 1994. She graduated from Rhea County High School in 1999 and earned her B.A. in English Literature at Bryan College in 2003. She lived in Chattanooga from the fall of 2003 to the summer of 2004, and had been a resident of Dayton ever since.
Her obituary said, "Rachel loved words and stories, and she built a successful career as a writer and speaker. She wrote four books: “Faith Unraveled”; “A Year of Biblical Womanhood,” which made the New York Times best-seller list; “Searching for Sunday”; and “Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water and Loving the Bible Again.” But even more than writing or the Alabama Crimson Tide or dark chocolate, Rachel loved Jesus, Scripture, and her family. "
She is survived by her husband of 15 years as well as her three-year-old son and 11-month-old daughter; her parents, Peter and Robin Held of Dayton; and her sister, Amanda (Tim) Opelt of Boone, N.C.
She was a New York Time best-selling author with a popular blog.
She had questioned some fundamentalist beliefs and was outspoken in behalf of those in the LGBT community.
She graduated from Bryan in 2003.
Funeral arrangements are by Vanderwall Funeral Home in Dayton.
Memorial contributions may be made to https://www.gofundme.com/supporting-rachel-held-evans for her children's ongoing support or to the Reformation Project athttps://www.reformationproject.org/.