Tammie Plott Readling

Tammie Ann Readling beat cancer for her fourth and final time at 11:02 PM on Thursday, August 7, 2025. She was at her home in Brown Summit, NC surrounded by her family with love, prayers, tears and rejoicing as she peacefully met her Lord and Savior allowing her faith to became sight. Mrs. Readling will be missed by everyone who had the honor to call her wife, mom, “Mamaw,” sister, aunt, cousin, co-worker, and friend. Her husband Rev. Bruce Readling retired in the last few years to support Tammie in her health journey. Bruce was the Teaching Elder at Christian Bible Fellowship in Gibsonville, where the celebration of life will be held on Saturday. In her last days, Tammie was supported by her husband, her three children, who saw her through all four bouts with cancer, which began at age 37. 

Her adult children are: Alisha (Readling) LaTour (spouse Jonathan LaTour), Joshua Readling (spouse Tina Johnson Readling), and Joseph Readling (spouse Anna Bullins Readling). Tammie was also blessed to spend almost 20 years as “Mamaw,” loving on her ten grandchildren: Sage LaTour, Sydney LaTour, Hadassah Readling, Shayla LaTour, Moriah Readling, Jesse LaTour, Tobias Readling, Joel LaTour, Stella LaTour, and Jensen LaTour. Recently, Tammie was also able to spend time with both her older sister and younger brother: Carolyn (Plott) West, of Cullowhee, NC and Todd Plott (spouse Kim Plott) of Kannapolis, NC. 

Mrs. Readling has family ties throughout much of the central part of North Carolina spanning Burlington to Greensboro to Cullowhee to Concord/Kannapolis. In addition to their biological family, God also blessed Tammie and Bruce with many people who became “adopted” family throughout the almost 50 years that they served together in multiple Christian ministries. Many of these dear folks, along with her well-loved extended family of nephews, nieces, and cousins, will come together on Friday and Saturday to celebrate her life and her heavenly homecoming.

Tammie Ann Plott was born on September 7, 1957 to Estelle Drye (Plott) Pauley and James Howard Plott, both of whom welcomed her into heaven on Thursday night. Tammie was also preceded in death by her brother, Larry Plott of Kannapolis, and her brother-in-law, Jerry West of Cullowhee.

 Tammie and Bruce met when Tammie was still in high school, and they began serving the Lord together very early in their relationship. Soon after she graduated from Mount Pleasant High School (near Concord, NC) in 1976, she and Bruce began their work together in youth ministry serving in churches in Concord, Greensboro and Burlington. Fifty years later, they retired from pastoral work at Christian Bible Fellowship in Gibsonville, NC. Tammie served alongside her husband in many roles throughout churches over the years: youth group leader, Awana leader, nursery worker, choir member, Sunday School teacher, Bible School teacher, counselor, and many other roles that a pastor’s wife steps into often by necessity. Tammie’s nature has always been to roll up her sleeves and dig in deep when something needs to be done. Additionally, she and her husband have counseled and mentored many couples and individuals throughout the years. Together, they have shared both grace and truth with many people. Tammie has always modeled her incredible – and often humorously straightforward – God-given ability to see things clearly and speak truth to you about it, and she would love you and be there for you through it all. Not only did Tammie serve with her husband through their church ministries, but she contributed to the community in several other roles as well. After high school, she received an associate’s degree in Respiratory Therapy from Stanley Technical Institute, and later she received her bachelor’s degree, eventually becoming certified as a Respiratory Therapist & Pulmonary Function Technician as well. She was passionate about her work in these fields and worked for almost four decades with Moses Cone Hospital. Taking a hiatus from the medical field in the early 2000s, she spent ten years as the owner and operator of a local community gift shop and garden center, The Corn Crib & The Country Corner, that was located in the BMOC in Burlington. After that, she returned to Moses Cone from where she retired in 2017. Tammie was not ready to slow down, though. After “retirement,” she took on the full-time role of property management for several family-owned companies spanning from Concord to Reidsville. She continued to serve the Lord as she connected with tenants and contractors over these past several years. Even from the hospital bed in her last couple of months, she was communicating with tenants and directing repairs and renovations. She would always perk up with the opportunity to talk about what new work was going on at one of her houses. Not only did she love this work, but she loved the people the Lord allowed her to connect with along this part of her journey. 

To close with a personal note from the family, Tammie Readling was an incredibly strong woman to fight off cancer three different times with God’s grace – and then again to put up the battle that she did this fourth and last time, even when her own body was working against her. Our family is so blessed by the way she exemplified the strength and testimony of a godly Christian woman – a heritage her grandchildren will always carry with them. For years now, when our family would be laughing with Tammie over things she said or did, she would say to us with a smile on her face – “All I can say is, you’re going to miss me when I’m gone!” Over the past eight months, these words have taken on a deeper meaning for all of us as we knew her time was drawing near. And now, even while our hearts mourn our loss here on earth, we can assuredly smile when we think of her, laugh when we remember her personality and zest for life, and continue to give God praise through the tears. We know she is where God wants her, and she would never want to come back. As a family, we hold tight to God’s promise that He will turn our mourning into dancing as we celebrate the life of our beloved Tammie. To God be the glory!