A funeral service for Mr. Buddy Whitley, 69, of Carthage, will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 19, 2014, at Jimerson-Lipsey Funeral Home Chapel with Bro. Rodger Cole officiating. Interment will follow in Restland Memorial Park. The family will receive friends from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday at the funeral home. Mr. Whitley passed away on Wednesday morning, Dec. 17, 2014, in Longview.

Earnest Woodrow "Buddy" Whitley, Jr. was born on Aug. 1, 1945, in Carthage to Earnest Woodrow Whitley, Sr. and Mamie D. Glover Whitley. He graduated from Carthage High School with the class of 1963. Buddy worked in trucking all of his life and owned and operated E.W. Whitley Trucking Co. in Carthage. He lived his lifetime in Carthage and was a member of Antioch Baptist Church. Mr. Whitley was preceded in death by his father and a special cousin, Belinda Woods.

Survivors include his mother, Mamie Whitley of Carthage; brother, Charles Whitley and Linda of Carthage; special friend, Carol Pierce of Carthage; aunts, Ella Cravens of Marshall and Kathryn Allen of Lufkin; niece Michelle Bellamy and daughter Madison of Carthage; nephew, A.R. Bellamy of Carthage; and special cousins, Richard Holland of Fair Play, Joyce Pellum of Fair Play, and Lynn Hamilton of League City.

Serving as pallbearers are Todd Kirkland, Cory Holland, Jimmy Woods, Garrett LaGrone, Aaron Hicks, Elton Weems, William Goolsby, and Richard Holland.

A guestbook may be signed online at www.jimerson-lipsey.com.