Harold L. Garnes

Harold Leroy Garnes, age 101, transitioned peacefully from this life on November 7, 2019. Born in Gallia County, OH, he was a graduate of Bidwell High School and attended Rio Grande College. Relocating to the south side of Columbus, he sold door-to-door insurance before his enlistment in the U.S. Army in which he served during World II in both the European and Pacific theaters. It was on the south side that he met his wife, Carrie, to whom he was married for 70 years before her passing in 2014. Harold was baptized at an early age and, upon his honorable discharge from the military service in 1945, he united with the Hosack Street Baptist Church. He was a part of the membership that helped to construct the 258 Hosack Street edifice. In 1979, he became a charter member of the Reeb-Hosack Community Baptist Church, now the Resurrection Missionary Baptist Church, where he served as a trustee, sang in the Men’s Chorus and was a part of the Men’s Ministry that served the widows of the church doing home maintenance projects. He was a 42-year retiree of the Defense Construction Supply Center (now known as DSCC) and a 50-year retiree of The Columbia Gas Company (now NiSource) working both jobs concurrently except for 8 years. Predeceased by wife Carrie, parents Ernest and Nita Smith Garnes, brothers Raymond and John Garnes, sister Martha Garnes, nephew John Rippey and sister-in-law Eunice H Scott. He leaves to remember him with love, daughter Donna Jean (Wiley) Bates; grandsons, Harold (Briggette) Bates of Pickerington, OH, Leon Bates of Columbus, and Wiley Bates, III (Carla) of Frisco, TX; great grandchildren, Ian (Lesly) Bates of Oakland, CA, Kelsey Bates, Darian Bates, Daniel Bates, Christian Bates, Davian Bates, Terrell Ferguson, and Christopher Williams; three great-great grandchildren; special niece, Myra (Arthur) Syfax of Columbus; great nephew Eric Syfax; great-great niece Aaliyah Syfax; nieces and nephews of the Garnes family; families of long-time friends Norma Ferguson and Charlotte Lawson; and many other nieces, nephews, family and friends including his Resurrection Church Family.