The article below is from the Daily Advocate, Belleville, St. Clair county, IL. I have on file a letter from the Belleville News Democrat (which the Advocate became a part of in later years) giving me permission to post any item that would be of help to genealogists. Unless stated to be a different state, all references to cities, villages etc. are in Illinois. I have been reading the Advocate on microfilm through inter library loan for several years, having started with 1850 and now into 1945. The name of the paper and the paper date are shown at the end of the article. Transcribed and submitted by Nancy Giles REV. W. A. SHARP, METHODIST, DIES Former Member of Southern Illinois Conference Who Preached Here Expires At Age of 47 Rev. Walter A. Sharp, 47, of St. Charles, Va. and formerly a member of the Southern Illinois Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, died at the LaFollette, Tenn. hospital yesterday afternoon, according to word received by his brother, Deputy County Recorder Ivan A. Sharp, here. Rev. Sharp was formerly pastor of the West Frankfort M. E. church and held a number of other pastorates in southern Illinois. He is kown in Belleville and preached a number of times in the First M. E. church here. He had been ill two weeks. He was a graduate of McKendree College, Lebanon. Funeral services will be held Saturday afternoon at 1 o'clock, from the home of his mother, Mrs. Viola Sharp, at Dahlgren, Ill., to the First M. E. church there. Burial will be in the Odd Fellows Cemetery, Dahlgren. Rev. Sharp, besides his mother, is survived by his widow, Mrs. Ruth Sharp, three children, Robert C., Helen and Clara Sharp, at home; three brothers, Ivan A. Sharp, Belleville; Hershell F. Sharp, St. Louis, and Floyd C. Sharp, Mount Vernon; and three sisters, Mrs. F. T. Finney, Springfield, Ill., Mrs. William Greenwall, Mount Vernon and Mrs. Sidney Johnson, Dahlgren. All the surviving relatives formerly lived in Belleville, although Rev. Sharp did not live here. Prior to his entry into the ministry the family home was at Dahlgren. The Daily Advocate, Belleville, Ill. June 27, 1935