Obituaries

William Vesely died August 23, 2022. His daughter, Patricia L. “Tricia” Vesely, serves as Music Director for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Germantown, Tennessee (West Tennessee Presbytery), and is Visiting Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible and Christian Ethics at Memphis Theological Seminary.

Larry J. Robertson, 74, of Batesville, Arkansas, died August 19, 2022. He was a member of New Hope Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Arkansas Presbytery) in Batesville where he served as an elder and Sunday school teacher for several years.

Dale R. Kelley, 82, of Huntingdon, Tennessee, died August 20, 2022. Kelley recently stepped down as athletics director of Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee, after serving in that capacity since July 2012. As a Bethel student, Kelley was an accomplished basketball and baseball player. Kelley was inducted into the Bethel Athletics Hall of Fame in […]

Rev. Kenneth Paul Phillips The Reverend Kenneth Paul Phillips, 81, of Lenoir City, Tennessee, and pastor of Heartland Cumberland Presbyterian Church, died August 16, 2022. He was born June 28, 1941, to William Ed Phillips and Thelma Phillips. Ken graduated from Lenoir City High School in 1959, married Marjorie Sue Lee in 1963, and spent […]

August 15, 2022 (RNS) By Emily McFarlan Miller Frederick Buechner was asked on numerous occasions how he would sum up everything he had preached and written in both his fiction and nonfiction. The answer, he said, was simply this: “Listen to your life.” That theme was constant across more than six decades in his career […]

Beverly Jean Salyer, 93, of Clarksville, Tennessee, died August 8, 2022. Beverly was born September 24, 1928, in Wellington, Missouri, and married Homer Salyer in 1948. The Reverend Stewart P. Salyer of Nashville Presbytery is her son. This article is incomplete. More information will be added as it becomes available.

Dennis J. Parra, 67, of Broken Bow, Oklahoma, died August 14, 2022. He had been in a coma after suffering two heart attacks on August 2, 2022. Dennis was a member of McGee Chapel Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Choctaw Presbytery) and worked for the Broken Bow school system. His wife, since April 23, 1994, is Faith […]

Glennda Mosley, 73, of Russellville, Arkansas, died August 13, 2022. She was a member of Lake Hamilton Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Hot Springs. Glennda was the wife of the Rev. Steve Mosley, current moderator of Arkansas Presbytery. She was born November 14, 1949, in Camden, Tennessee.

The Reverend Joel P. Rice of Brazos Presbytery, Texas Synod, Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, died August 10, 2022. A past General Assembly Moderator, he was a longtime pastor in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America and made history as the man to break the color barrier at Bethel College (now University) in McKenzie, Tennessee. […]

Thelma Mae Grebe, 99, of Memphis, Tennessee, the oldest member of Faith Cumberland Presbyterian Church (West Tennessee Presbytery) in Bartlett, Tennessee, died August 4, 2022. Thelma was born September 13, 1922, Lutesville, Missouri, and was just short of her hundredth birthday. She had served as president of Faith’s Cumberland Presbyterian Women’s Ministry.