Matthew Raydell Merchant

Matthew Raydell Merchant, 82, of Saluda, passed away Wednesday, August 3, 2016. Funeral services will be held at 4:00 P.M. August 6, at Sardis Baptist Church with interment in the church cemetery with Rev. Dennis Campbell and Rev. Jerry Dean officiating. The family will receive friends after the service in the church. Active pallbearers will be his great nephews, Ward and Sam Jones, Brandon, Dylan, and Ryan Cloer, Cameron Mitchell and Matthew and Luke Ergle. Honorary pallbearers will be John Perry, Webb Johnson, John Bennett, Daryl Buzhardt, Haskell, Darin and Mark Cromer and Garrett and Marlon Matthews.

Mr. Merchant was born in Saluda County, son of the late Stokes and Myrtice Coleman Merchant. He retired from Kraft Foods. He was a longtime member of Hopewell Congregational Holiness Church.

Surviving are his wife, Mary Lois Johnson Merchant and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his father and mother; brothers, Matthew Stokes Merchant, Jr and Dawson W. Merchant; and sisters, Mary Elizabeth Cromer; Theola Jones and Eva Sue Matthews.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hopewell Congregational Holiness Church, 785 Old Chappell Ferry Road, Saluda, SC 29138 or Sardis Baptist Church, 218 Sardis Road, Saluda, SC 29138.