Column: Fayetteville Business Owner Remembered for Carrying on Family Name
Stewart Bell, like his father and grandfather before him, owned and operated Bell's Seed Store on Russell Street for more than 40 years. His customers became lifelong friends. Stewart Maxwell Bell died at age 64 on October 20.
By Bill Kirby Jr.
November 1, 2026
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Stewart Bell (Credit: Rogers and Breece Funeral Home)
Perhaps there was no need for pastors to deliver eulogies about the life of Stewart Bell. Bell wrote his eulogy all of the days of his life.
“The truth is we preach our own funerals by the way we live,” Rev. John Cook, former pastor at Snyder Memorial Baptist Church, told those in attendance at a Celebration of Life at First Baptist Church on Anderson Street downtown on October 29, 2026. “Stewart Bell preached a phenomenal funeral by the way he lived.”
Bell didn’t need to write a script about how he should live. He found his template in his Bible scriptures.
“His parents taught him about his Lord and Savior,” said Cook.
Bell followed in his father’s footsteps in the lawn and garden business (current owner is his son, also named Stewart).