Heendedthisworldlyjourney towalkamongstotherangels, sidebysidewithGod. Socelebratethisperfectly imperfect,worldlyman, LastnameHuddleston,firstname Sam.

December 2, 1943 - January 11, 2016

Sam

SamAs you’re reading this, please know

that there’s no reason to cry. I am finally pain-free so you can dry your eyes. I knew the Lord, so now I’m at heaven’s door.

No more struggling to walk because the clouds are my floor. No more weight on my shoulders, trying to keep things together.

These wings up on my back, got me feeling light as a feather. Mourn me with your heads high,

although your hearts may be heavy,knowing that in the end, I was not scared of death

and I knew I was ready, to end this worldly journey, although that may sound odd,

and walk amongst other angels, side by side with God.So celebrate this perfectly imperfect, worldly man,

Last name Huddleston, first name Sam. Ferrell Kyles, Nephew-in-Law

THANK YOUTo all who have treated us with love and kindness, we thank you. We have laughed and cried together as we remember Sam. We ask that you keep us in your hearts and prayers as we continue this difficult journey. - Sam’s Family

PALLBEARERS LaGrande T. Huddleston Roberto C. Huddleston Robert T. Hawthorne Damon Kyles Ferrell Kyles Samuel H. Huddleston II Samuel Huddleston III Howlette C. Huddleston Gregory Crues Tevin Roper

HONORARY PALLBEARERSPaul Huddleston Sherman A. Hawthorne Howlette L. Huddleston Marvin D. CatheyCornell H. Huddleston Melvin Cole Bernard Adams James Williams Sam Coleman Lonnie Roper

INTERMENT St. Peters Cemetery

2101 Lucas and Hunt Road, St. Louis, Missouri

REPAST (Immediately following burial)

Zion Travelers Missionary Baptist Church

CELEBRATION OF LIFE FOR

SamFriday, January 22, 2016, 10:00 a.m.

Zion Travelers Missionary Baptist Church351 Chambers Road, St. Louis, MO 63137

The Rev. Dr. Linden Bowie, Pastor and Officiant

Musical Prelude

Family Processional

Scripture ReadingOld Testament: Genesis 1:1

New Testament: John 11:25-26

Prayer

Musical Selection Tish Haynes Keys

Acknowledgements & Condolences

Special RemarksGary Dollar

NaTika Rowles

Musical Selection Zion Travelers Male Chorus

Ministers’ Remarks

Sam’s Life Story (Read silently)

Musical Selection Sam “Buddy” Huddleston II

EulogyThe Rev. Dr. Linden Bowie

Parting View

Benediction

Services by Granberry Mortuary

He had a 1,000-megawatt smile. It was the first thing you noticed about Sam. Later,

you would learn that he had a serious side, he was tenacious, and that he was a man of many talents with a mischievous streak a mile wide.

“Sam was a force to be reckoned with,” laughed his big sister, Gloria. “And he was spoiled.”That, she said, never changed.

Sam was the youngest of Ida Mae Welford Huddleston and Carlos Loucellus Huddleston’s four children and their only son. Like many Blacks before them, Sam’s parents made their way out of the south. In 1936, the Huddlestons traded

Humboldt, Tennessee for the south side of St. Louis.

Samuel Harris Huddleston was born seven years later on December 2, 1943.

He was a rambunctious child, but Sam was smart and he was indus-trious. After graduating from Beau-mont High School he took automo-

tive courses at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. He married and

later divorced JoAnn Bishop, with whom he had two children.

With children to care for, Sam became a very hard-working man.

Jack of All Trades, Master of Many

Sam was a man of many professions. He handled concierge services at Old Warson Country Club; he was a milkman for Pevely Dairy; he did inspections for St. Paul Title Co., he managed two restaurants: I-HOP, from which he received an award, and

Church’s Chicken. His last job was at the Bi-State Development Agency (now Metro Transit), where he drove buses for 13 years, retiring in 2003.

Based on his childhood, it seems that driving should have been his first and only job. At four or five years old, said his sister Gloria, their father had Sam sitting on his lap teaching him how to drive.

“He didn’t teach us anything,” Gloria said, recalling another example of how Sam was pampered. “We (the three girls) had to go to driving school.”

One of his many jobs was working the counter at Normandy Bowling Lanes. It’s where he met Earline Roper in 1974.

“It took two years of begging before Earline would go out with me,” Sam would often say. That’s because, Earline said, he was a “player.”

“I told him when he got rid of some of those women – maybe,” Earline said. She finally agreed to marry him if they bought a house.

And so he did. They were married on July 30, 1994; they moved into their home in Black Jack in 1995.

A Man of Many Talents

As a young man, Sam spent much of his time playing tennis. He often played at Fairground Park, not far from his grade school, Farragut Elementary, in the Northside neighborhood where his family lived after moving from south St. Louis.

He was a pretty good tennis player. He played in tournaments and won several trophies. But his greatest skills, perhaps, were culinary. His specialties were barbecue and greens and he went wherever he had to go to get just the right ingredients. He headed to DeMange Family Farms in East St. Louis for turnips, collards and mustard greens.

“I want to get them while they are young,” he’d declare. His wife said he was picking the greens practically “before they could come out of the ground.”

Since he was in Illinois anyway, he’d go a little farther to Schubert’s Smokehouse & Meat-Packing Company in Millstadt for some bacon and ham hocks for his greens. Back on the Missouri

side, he’d swing by Restaurant Depot for ribs, which he would bar-beque in any and all kinds of weather.

Sam could sing too. For the past seven years he had been a member of Zion Travelers Missionary Baptist Church where he served as president of the male chorus. He also worked in the food pantry.

Love Lives OnKneeling beside his bed – not to pray but to relieve a bad back – Sam called his family every day of his life, even as illness made simply breathing difficult.

The calls included his mother, who died at age 99 in 2014, and his sister, Patricia Janet Randle, who died the same year. He was also

preceded in death by his father.

In addition to his wife of almost 22 years, Earline

Roper Huddleston, Sam is survived by many oth-ers who loved him, including two sisters, Gloria Arrington of St. Louis and Brenda Crues of San Tan

Valley, Arizona; his son and daughter, Sam (Regina) Huddleston II and Sabrina Huddleston, both of O’Fallon, Illinois; his stepdaughter, NaTika (Jared) Rowles of Cape Girardeau, Missouri; two grandchildren, Sam Huddleston III and A’Nyse Huddleston; an uncle, Ernest Welford, of Milwaukee; three aunts, Frances Jones, Mary Huddleston and Lanetta Huddleston, all of St. Louis; two nephews, LaGrande (Cheryl) Huddleston of St. Louis, and Gregory (Miranda) Crues of Dacula, Georgia, and three nieces, Shari Barry of San Tan Valley, Arizona, and Monica Randle and Marcie Randle, both of Laveen, Arizona.

Sam is also survived by his mother- and father-in-law, Marie Roper and Earl Roper, sisters-in-law, Elizabeth Kyles and Elaine Roper, and a brother-in-law, Lonnie Roper, all of St. Louis.