The Reverend Mace Travis Jett, Jr., 89, (West Tennessee Presbytery) died March 25, 2020, at his home in Martin, Tennessee. He was born to Mace Travis Jett, Sr., and Lauretta Downs Jett on January 15, 1931, in Detroit, Michigan. Mace became a Christian in 1939 and joined the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan, in 1940. The Jett family moved to Paducah, Kentucky, where Mace attended Tilghman High School for three years and joined Margaret Hank Memorial Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He completed his high school education by taking the GED at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in 1948.
In 1948, then living in Paducah, Mace came under the care of Mayfield Presbytery at their spring meeting. He enrolled in Bethel College in McKenzie, Tennessee, and graduated in 1952. Mace married Shirley Ann Bizzell of Water Valley, Kentucky, on June 8, 1951. He was also ordained in April 1951. The Reverend E. Thatch Shauf preached his ordination sermon and the Reverend E. A. Mathis delivered the charge.
After Bethel, Mace continued to the Cumberland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, then also in McKenzie. He graduated from seminary in 1959.
Prior to entering the military chaplaincy on July 3, 1960, Mace pastored Beech Grove in Lyn Grove, Kentucky; Pleasant Valley in Bandana, Kentucky; and First Church in Waynesboro, Tennessee. He was also associate pastor at Margaret Hank Memorial in Paducah. Mace then made his career in the U.S. Army as a chaplain and retired with the rank of Lt. Colonel.
After retirement from the army, Mace served as pastor of Parkway Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee; First Church in Erin, Tennessee; and First Church in Martin.
Mace and Shirley’s daughter, Dana Jett-Rand, is a licentiate in West Tennessee Presbytery.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.