The Reverend Bobby J. Hancock, 86, known both Bobby Jo and B.J., pastor emeritus of Cowan Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Murfreesboro Presbytery), died January 20, 2021. Bobby Jo married Charlie Ross McCain December 26, 1955, and together they had five children from 1957 through 1967.

Bobby Jo was born in Alcorn County, Mississippi, March 3, 1934, to Addie Lee Williams Hancock and John Robert Hancock. In 1947, he joined the Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Corinth, Mississippi., in Madison Presbytery.

Bobby graduated from Alcorn County High School in 1952, went to Bethel College (now Bethel University), and then to the Cumberland Presbyterian Theological Seminary in McKenzie, Tennessee. He came under the care of Madison Presbytery in 1954, was licensed in 1956, and ordained by Madison Presbytery May 12, 1957. The Reverend Howard Charles Walton preached Bobby’s ordination sermon and the Reverend Orland Taft Arnett delivered the charge.

He served more than a dozen Cumberland Presbyterian Churches in Middle Tennessee including New Bethel, New Salem, Antioch, Coker, Mason Hall, Rutherford, McMinnville, Huntland, Goshen, and Sewanee. He served the Cowan C. P. Church between the years of 1970-1980 as well as other Cumberland Presbyterian Churches in Tennessee, Alabama and Indiana. During his ministry, Bobby was a member of Madison, New Hope, Obion, and Murfreesboro Presbyteries.