TYLER, Texas--E.B. Vance, 81, an area coordinator for the Intercontinental Church of God, based near here, died unexpectedly of asbestosis, a lung disease, Nov. 15th 2003.

Mr. Vance had been a member of the Radio/Worldwide Church of God in the 1950s, later a member of the Church of God International and, most recently, the ICG.

Mr. Vance's funeral was Nov. 19 at a funeral home in Tyler. Officiating were ICG elders Tom Griffith and Stan Roberts and Mr. Vance's daughter, Cheryl Vance Freeman Kern. Burial was the next day in Madill, Okla.

In World War II Mr. Vance had served as a pilot and as a "reconnaissance scout and sniper" as an airman in the Army Air Force, said his grandson Vance Freeman of Dallas.

Besides his wife, Colleen, Mr. Vance is survived by a stepbrother, Lenuel Vance, and a sister, Veresa Sasser, both of Mobile, Ala.; a nephew, Geary Vance of Baton Rouge, La.; a daughter, Cheryl Vance Freeman Kern of Rockwall, Texas; three grandsons, Vance Freeman and Brandon Freeman, both of Highland Park, Texas, and Heath Freeman of Hollywood, Calif.; and two grandchildren.