Enoch S. Lyons walked on to the spirit world on Oct. 23, 2024, after a short illness.
Born Nov. 25, 1945, in a parsonage in Whittaker Ridge in Bandy, Virginia, Mr. Lyons, an American Indian, spent his childhood moving across the Appalachians with his father, Rev. James “Tony” Lyon, an Assembly of God evangelist known as “The Indian Preacher” and family. Through the 1940s, Rev. Lyon held services in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. The family eventually moved to Akron, Ohio, where Enoch Lyons attended South High School as a three-sport athlete. He graduated in 1963.
At age 17, he enlisted in the Marines, completing basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, and becoming a jet engine mechanic. In 1964, he went to Vietnam, where he served in combat and was promoted up to the rank of E-5 (Sgt). After being honorably discharged, he moved to North Carolina, earning an associate degree at Gaston College before attending Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
An education major, with a concentration in health and physical education, he met his future wife, Robbie Sharrett, at ASU. He graduated in May 1973; they married a year later in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
Through the late 1970s, he taught and coached multiple sports, including basketball, football, and track and field in Franklin. In 1978, he coached Franklin’s basketball team to the state final four playoffs, and was a two-time Coach of the Year for the Potomac Valley Conference. He always fondly remembered his years at Franklin High School, coaching determined young men to championships and working with Coach Gary Smith and Coach Edwin Wimer. He loved the people and the mountain community. Later moving to Lebanon, Virginia, he also served as athletic director at Honaker High School.
In 1981, he and his wife moved back to Boone, North Carolina, to the mountains they loved. In 1989, they started their own construction and real estate business, where he was a real estate developer, broker, and licensed contractor. In 2001, he was named Builder of the Year by the High Country Home Builders Association; he later received awards from his local chamber of commerce for renovating multiple historic homes.
More than all of these achievements, he was a loving husband, beloved father, devoted family man and a trusted friend to many. His loved ones and friends will remember him for his thoughtful advice, his quick wit, and his rich singing voice.
His wife of over 50 years, Robbie J. Sharrett, survives.
Also surviving are a daughter, Conley E. Lyons; two sisters, Annette Lennox of Summerville, South Carolina, and Geri Lyons of Alexandria, Virginia; a sister-in-law, Geneva Lyons (Jack) of Barberton, Ohio; a brother-in-law, Stephen Warth (Diana) of Brecksville, Ohio; 20 nieces and nephews; plus many in-laws, great-nieces, great-nephews, and extended family across seven states.
He was preceded in death by his father, the Rev. James Moran Lyon (1994); his mother, Mary Ethel Ramey Lyon (2003); sisters, Esther (2017), Ageline (2021), Romona Jean (1994), Ladine (1999), Rebekah (2021) and Diana (2015); brothers, Jack (2019) and Jim (1997), who were also Marines; six brothers-in-law, Don C., Don H., Dave, Raymond, Carlos, and Butch); nephews, Rick and Michael Hogston (2021); and a niece, Raven Caudill (1992).
The family thanks Amorem Hospice and Seby Jones Cancer Center in Boone, North Carolina, for all their care and support.
A local service with military honors will be held at 1 p.m. Nov. 16 at Hampton Funeral Home in Boone, North Carolina.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests one considers donating to the Whittaker Ridge Assembly of God at 6702 Bandy Road, Bandy, VA, 24602. As Mr. Lyons’s birthplace, and one of the places where his father preached, this mountaintop church was close to his heart. For more than 40 years, he attended their yearly homecoming, where he played guitar and sang old-time gospel songs, often joined by members of his family. As children, he and his siblings traveled with their father to revivals as a gospel singing group.
“We know they are reunited in the next world, and are singing together again now.”
