Franklin Oresta

Franklin Oresta (furthest to the right) in a photo of Virginia Ministers at Columbia Primitive Baptist Church in Burtonsville.From Left: Bill Dillon, Gary Utz (rear), Raymond Pressly; Philip Johnson, James Kosch, Forrest Atwood, Toliver Utz, Franklin Oresta.

Elder Franklin O. Oresta was the former pastor of Montcalm Primitive Baptist Church in West Virginia, and it is unclear if this church is active or disbanded. 

Franklin passed away on March 30, 2005 (aged 71) in Mercer County, West Virginia. He is interred at Roselawn Memorial Gardens in Princeton, Mercer County.

Elder Franklin lived in Bluefield, West Virginia. Franklin Orella Oresta was born on 3 July 1933 in Matoaka, Mercer, West Virginia. His father, Joseph Orella Oresta, was 54, and his mother, Mary Elizabeth Anderson, was 39. He married Annalene Gay Marshall on 26 December 1952, in Lashmeet, Mercer, West Virginia. Ann and Franklin met at Matoaka High School and were married on December 26, 1952. On July 13, 1963, Ann, her twin sister Katherine “Kat,” and their father, Sam, joined the Montcalm Primitive Baptist Church. Ann and Franklin spent over 50 years hosting church and family friends weekly as they served the Lord. Annalene “Ann” Gay Marshall Oresta, 90, of Salem, VA, formerly of Bluefield, WV, went to be with the Lord Tuesday, January 7, 2025. Born June 25, 1934, she was well-known as one of the “Marshall twins” of the late Sam and Dorothy Mabe Marshall of Rock/Montcalm, WV.

Sister Annalene (Ann) Oresta