The Reverend Vernon Houston Burrow, 90, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, died February 7, 2022, in Nashville. An honorably retired member of Murfreesboro Presbytery, Vernon pastored for more than 60 years at various Cumberland Presbyterian churches in Texas and Tennessee.

Vernon was born January 19, 1932, in Petersburg, Texas, to the farming family of James Forrest Burrow and Maude McCright Burrow. Vernon joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Petersburg in July 1941. He attended the public schools in Petersburg before going to Bethel College (now Bethel University) in McKenzie, Tennessee, where he met and married Annelle Headden.

Lubbock Presbytery received Vernon as a candidate in 1949 and ordained him in August 1952, after he graduated from Bethel. He continued to the Cumberland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, then also in McKenzie, graduating in 1955. He also earned a Master’s Degree in Educational Supervision and Administration from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Vernon served in several capacities in the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination. As a student, he served Ebenezer Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Mason, Tennessee. He was involved in building programs at Fairview in Marshall, Texas, and at Mt. Tabor in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He served Cleveland, Tennessee, Cumberland Presbyterian Church and Stone Oak Cumberland Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, Texas.

Vernon served on the General Assembly’s Board of Foreign Missions, the Board of Christian Education of Nashville and Murfreesboro Presbyteries, and on the Committee on the Ministry of Western Presbytery. He wrote various articles and study programs for the Cumberland Presbyterian and the Missionary Messenger. He published the Encourager from 1999 to 2003, a newsletter that provided encouragement to other ministers.

Vernon also taught American history and government in public high schools at Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee, from 1971 to 1977, and at La Vergne, Tennessee, from 1977 to 1979.

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