KERNERSVILLE - Command Sgt. Major Elijah Burgin Pressley Jr., U.S. Army (Ret.), 68, of 90 Blythe St., formerly of Candler, died Friday, May 26, 2000, in a Winston-Salem hospital.

A native of Buncombe County, he was a son of Bertha Davis McHenry of Candler and the late Elijah B. Pressley Sr. He was preceded in death by one brother, James D. Pressley. He was a member of Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church.

Sgt. Pressley served 30 years in the U.S. Army before retiring in 1978 as a Command Sergeant Major. He was a member of the Spring Lake Lodge A.F. and A.M., the Meridian, Miss., Scottish Rite and Eastern Star and the Charlotte Oasis Temple. He was also a member and former Post Commander of VFW Post 5352.

Surviving in addition to his mother are his wife, Beverly Warren Pressley; one daughter, Brenda L. Simmons and her husband, Thomas, of Walkertown; one son, William Pressley of Candler; three sisters, Ruby Green and her husband, Henry, of Candler, Linda Carol Pressley of Madison County and Narissa Gibson and her husband, Art, of Bryson City; four brothers, Edward and Ronald Pressley of Asheville, James D. Pressley of Candler and Donald and Darlene Pressley of Madison County; four grandchildren, Timothy W. Johnson, Heather, Michael and Megan Simmons; brothers and sisters-in-law, Phillip Warren and his wife, Mary, Robert Warren and his wife, Sylvia, Judith Jackson, Peggy Thompson and her late husband, Henry; and a number of nieces and nephews.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church. The Revs. Bobby Winebarger  and Tommy Huntsinger- will officiate. Burial will be in the church cemetery with an Army Detachment from Fort Bragg providing full military rites.

The family will receive friends from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at Groce Funeral Home, Patton Avenue, where the body will remain until placed in the church 30 minutes prior to the service.

Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association or the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.