Mr. Ruel McCoye little

ruel little

March 13, 1928 ~ January 22, 2025

Born in: Beauford County, N.C
Resided in: Middlesex, N.C.

Rocky Mount –

Ruel McCoye “Coye” Little, age 96, walked through the gates of heaven on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, while surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Beaufort County, NC on March 13, 1928 to Thomas Luther and Rosa Bell Johnston Little and was the last surviving of his eleven siblings. In addition to his parents and siblings, he was preceded in death by the love of his life, Marian Hinton Little with whom he shared sixty-four wonderful years of marriage.

He was a proud veteran having served our country honorably in the United States Army from 1950 – 1952 during the Korean War. While he was away at boot camp, his best friend wrote to him and said that he had found his wife. While he was on furlough in 1951, he went on a blind date in Middlesex, NC. The beautiful young lady cooked him a meal and it was love. They wrote letters for the next year while he was overseas, true long-distance dating. When he came home, he and his brother-in-law, Dave Leggett, built the house on Arbor Lane and on February 14, 1953 he married that beautiful woman, Marian, and began a lifetime together until the Lord took her home in January 2018.

Coye worked at White’s Supermarket, Rocky Mount Cord Mill, shirt factory in Wilson, and Summergrade/Pillowtex as Assistant Manager until the plant shut down. He was then offered a job at Coeco as the Warehouse Supervisor and served there until he retired. His retirement looked a little different as his first grandson was born and two years later, his granddaughter, who gave him his favorite title, “Papa”. He loved his grandchildren, played with them, taught them about gardening, prayed for them and exemplified the perfect example of the love of Jesus.

He taught Sunday school for many years at South Rocky Mount Church of God, then went on to teach at Pathway Temple Church of God. When those doors closed, he knew he wanted to attend church with his grandchildren so he started attending Rise Church. At Rise Church he became a gatekeeper, attended men’s meetings and bible studies, life group, and was an avid supporter of Peacemakers. He deeply loved his family, church family, friends, co-workers, and was a man of great compassion, kindness and faith.

Coye is survived by his son, Linwood Little and wife, Myra; daughter, Angela Becker and husband, Rick; grandson, Dillon Becker and wife, Samantha; granddaughter, Ashlyn Eldridge and husband, Gage; two beautiful great-granddaughters, Merribelle and Saige Eldridge and many wonderful nieces, nephews and cousins, his beloved church family and lots of amazing friends.

A Celebration of Coye’s Life will be held at 1:00pm on Saturday, January 25, 2025 at Rise Church, 3520 Bishop Road, Rocky Mount, NC 27804 with Pastor Richard Gurganus, Pastor Jason Cockrell and Pastor Tracy Stone officiating. The family will receive friends prior to the service from 11:30am – 12:45pm.

In lieu of flowers, please consider memorial donations to Peacemakers, 2221 W. Raleigh Blvd, Rocky Mount, NC 27803 in Coye’s memory.  

The family would like to say a special thank you for the many visits, calls, texts and meals from family and friends. Thank you for the personal visits you had with dad these last days. Everyone always said they came to encourage dad but left more uplifted from the words Coye had shared with them. Coye Little was a general in God’s army and leaves a bright legacy for us to follow.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Ruel “Coye” McCoye Little, please visit our floral store.

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