Julia Mason Atkins died Nov. 24 of heart failure at Methodist University Hospital. She was 87.

Mrs. Atkins had worked as office manager at Pentecostal Temple C.O.G.I.C, where Patterson is pastor.

She was a Booker T. Washington graduate and received her bachelor's degree from West Virginia State College, in Charleston.

Mrs. Atkins helped start a scholarship program for the C.O.G.I.C denomination during the early 1970s.

She often emphasized education.

"She informed them (youth) that it was the one thing no one could take away from you," said Rev. Dickerson Wells, pastor of Bethel C.O.G.I.C, who worked with Mrs. Atkins. "She was very warm and encouraging. Not only of young people but of all who worked in the interest of the church."

Her love for education began with her father.

"She said her father was a man of prayer and encouraged education," Wells said.

She was the widow of Dr. Leland Atkins.

Funeral services will be at 10 am, December 2, 2005, at Pentecostal C.O.G.I.C. Burial will be at 1 p.m. in West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery.