Kennis Arthur Mullins

Kennis Arthur Mullins, 93, of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina died Wednesday in Hospice care at the Grand Strand Health Care facility in Myrtle Beach.

Born in 1923, he was a native of Logan, WV. Mullins and his wife, Myrtle Browning Mullins, retired to Mount Pleasant in 1985.

Mullins was a Mason and a proud U.S. Navy veteran who served aboard the battleship U.S.S. Arkansas during World War II. In recent years, Mullins was one of only a handful of men still living who had served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during the war. The crew of the Arkansas saw action at Normandy as well as Iwo Jima.

After the war, he worked as an electrician in the coalfields of Southern West Virginia, retiring as a federal mine safety inspector for the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

A son of the late Spencer and Laura Adkins Mullins of Verdunville, WV,, he is survived by three sons: Carl of Murrell's Inlet, SC, James of Hardy, Ky., and Stephen of Pendleton, SC.; a daughter, Deborah Reynolds of Mount Pleasant; a brother, Bernie Mullins of Princeton, WV, two sisters, Peggy Mamula of Huntington, WV, and Charlotte Nielson of Florida; dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A devoted father and grandfather with a sharp wit and ready smile, Mullins spent countless hours passing along to his children and grandchildren the many songs, stories and poems that he'd collected during a lifetime immersed in West Virginia's mountaineer culture. As a mine safety inspector, he enjoyed a reputation for fairness and honesty among coal industry officials, and he was regarded as humble and generous by family, friends and neighbors.

Along with his parents he is preceded in death by his wife, sisters Carrie Stewart, Ruby Farley and Anna Rogers; brothers Sterlie, Bill, and Jim Mullins.

Mullins and his wife were long-time members of Easthaven Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant.

His Funeral Service will be held Friday, June 3, 2016 in J. Henry Stuhr Inc., Mount Pleasant Chapel, 1494 Mathis Ferry Road at 1:00 p.m. Interment will follow at Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends Friday from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Heaven Sent Ministries, based in Princeton, WV; 400 City View Heights, Princeton, WV, 24740; www.hsminc.org.