New York area wake and funeral services: Saturday, January 18, 2020 at Bethany Baptist Church of Brooklyn, 460 Marcus Garvey Boulevard, Brooklyn, New York. Wake service at 9:00 A.M., followed by funeral at 11:00 A.M.
Georgia area memorial and interment: Saturday, January 25, 2020 at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 1908 Dozier Road, Ellaville, Georgia. Memorial at 11:00 A.M. Interment will follow in the Church cemetery.
Roosevelt Matthews was born to the late Nathaniel and Mary L. Haynes Matthews on May 7, 1936. He accepted Christ at an early age and joined the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Ellaville, Georgia.
He was educated in the public school system of Schley County, Georgia and was a 1954 graduate of Ellaville High School. He was valedictorian of his class. He served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1957. From 1957 to 1959, he attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 1960, Roosevelt moved to New York City, where he lived for more than 50 years; Harlem, then Brooklyn. While in New York, he was employed as a letter carrier for the US Postal Service and as a Surface Line Operator for the New York City Transit Authority from 1966 until his retirement in 1986.
In 1968, he married Miss Brenda Dingle at Calvary A.M.E. Church in Brooklyn, New York and to this union they were blessed with two sons, Scott and Brett.
He joined the band of Christian believers at Bethany Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York. Roosevelt enjoyed singing in the choir and in 1999, he became a Deacon of Bethany.
In 2005, Roosevelt found love again; marrying Mrs. Norva Sharpe, also a member of Bethany Baptist Church.
On Sunday, January 12, 2020 the angel of death swiftly moved and released our beloved Roosevelt from his pain and called him home to rest.
He leaves to cherish his precious memories: his loving and devoted wife, Norva and her family, Brooklyn, New York; his sons, Scott and his wife Meg, Scituate, Massachusetts, and Brett and his wife Crysta, Mt. Kisco, New York; his grand-daughters Julia and Hannah Matthews, Scituate, Massachusetts; his sisters Barbara Ann Jackson, Columbus, Georgia, and Thelma Haynes, Fortson, Georgia; nephew James Jackson, Jr. and his wife Jacqueline, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; nieces Barbara L. Jackson, Melissa Hefflin, Charice Jackson, and Tanisha Y. Habersham and her husband Jimmy, Columbus, Georgia, and many beloved great nieces and nephews, cousins, relatives, and friends.
In lieu of flowers, the family of Deacon Roosevelt Matthews is asking that persons make a donation to the American Cancer Society.