Lillie Mae West entered this world on December 12, 1930, in Laurens County to the late Lula Saxon Nelson and the late Claude H. Nelson. She was the only child. This was the beginning stage of The Great Depression.
Her early education started at the Mt. Carmel School (Rosenwald School) where she would stay with her grandparents, the late Frances and Mack Saxon, Jr. She would later graduate from the Fountain Inn Negro High School (Rosenwald School) in 1947. She would go on to attend and graduate from South Carolina State University in 1951 with a B.S. Degree in Home Economics.
Lillie started her career as a teacher in Inman, South Carolina, at Ben Bomar High School. Shortly after, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she worked as a dietician at a hospital and lived with an aunt, Lizzie Mitchell. She met a man, who was in the US Marine Corps-Willie Paul West Jr., and they married on June 12, 1955, in Norfolk, Virginia, where he was stationed at the time. They would be married for 46 years, until his passing on August 15, 2001.
While in San Diego, she was a member of the Mission Village Baptist Church. She worked for the San Diego City Schools as a Director of a Child Development Center. When she moved back to South Carolina in 1980, she reunited her membership with New Liberty Baptist Church under the pastorship of Rev. Nathaniel Sartor. She was previously baptized there and was a member during her youth. Later, she became a deaconess, church clerk, financial secretary, and member of Women’s Missionaries. She was an active and faithful member until declining health in 2019. Lillie required a greater level of caregiving. She received hospice care services at North Carolina State Veterans Home in Salisbury, North Carolina, by Pruitt Health Hospice.
In the early afternoon of July 7, 2025, she entered into eternal rest.
Mrs. Lillie M. West is survived by 4 children; Rodney (Freda) West, Sr. and Veronica West of San Diego, CA, Paula West of San Francisco, CA, and Gregory West of Charlotte, NC, four grandchildren; Jennifer (Willie) Morrow of Plantersville, AL, Rodney West, Jr. of San Diego, CA, Gamilah (Joy) West of Dallas, TX, and Johnathan (Nikki) Schott of San Marcos, CA, great-grandchildren, in-laws, an aunt, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.
One grandchild, Ryan West, preceded her in death.
