The Rev. Henry Wooten, a longtime Tucson pastor who thrilled his congregation with his extensive knowledge of baseball lore as well as the gospel, died Saturday in a Tucson nursing home. He was 79.
Wooten preached at North Tucson Baptist, Pima Street Baptist, North Swan Baptist and El Con Baptist churches, and in Ajo at First Baptist Church.
He was born in Kentucky, the son of a sharecropper who moved his family to Detroit during the Depression.
Baseball was Wooten's chosen path, and he pitched his way through Detroit's famed sandlots with the likes of Don Lund, who made it with the Tigers, and Vern ''Junior'' Stephens, who played for the St. Louis Browns and Red Sox in the 1940s and '50s.
He began preaching in Arkansas in 1943, moved to Michigan, back to Kentucky and then Tennessee before making Arizona his home in 1956 and permanently settling in Tucson in 1969.
He spent time preaching in New Zealand and often returned to his previous congregations throughout his long career, said his daughter, Jan Shrader.
Wooten led the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention 1973-75, was vice president of Grand Canyon College in Phoenix for a year in the '70s and served as chaplain of the state House of Representatives in the same decade.
He also provided comfort as chaplain at Tucson General Hospital after he had officially retired and comforted countless other people while officiating over more than 3,000 funerals.
"My father had a lot of loves," Shrader said. "He loved baseball, he loved people, he loved preaching and he loved funerals, as strange as it sounds.
"He was really known for his ministry to the bereaved."
Wooten was also famed for his baseball card collection, which included more than 70,000 cards - dozens of them irreplaceable - and his willingness to talk about the game he loved.
That attitude also affected his ministry, Shrader said, recalling times when her father was working as a pastor in Ajo and would talk to known drug-runners in attempts to help them understand the gospel.
He also used his gift for oratory to reach out to minority-dominated churches, bridging the racial divide in the years before reconciliation was widely accepted, when separation was the rule, Shrader said.
''He loved to tell people how God had changed his life and really believed people could change. He was very redemptive in the way he looked at people,'' she said.
In addition to Shrader, Wooten is survived by Dorothy, his wife of 55 years; sons Dwight, of Kentucky and Rudy, of California; a sister, Mae Burn, Florida; a brother, Willard Wooten, Kentucky; sister-in-law Agnes Wooten of Kentucky; and grandsons Keith, Micah and Elliot Shrader, all of Tucson, and Wayne Wooten of Oregon.
Services were held at Casas Adobes Baptist Church, followed by a private committal service. Arrangements were by Evergreen Mortuary.
Arizona Daily Star February 15, 1999
Wooten preached at North Tucson Baptist, Pima Street Baptist, North Swan Baptist and El Con Baptist churches, and in Ajo at First Baptist Church.
He was born in Kentucky, the son of a sharecropper who moved his family to Detroit during the Depression.
Baseball was Wooten's chosen path, and he pitched his way through Detroit's famed sandlots with the likes of Don Lund, who made it with the Tigers, and Vern ''Junior'' Stephens, who played for the St. Louis Browns and Red Sox in the 1940s and '50s.
He began preaching in Arkansas in 1943, moved to Michigan, back to Kentucky and then Tennessee before making Arizona his home in 1956 and permanently settling in Tucson in 1969.
He spent time preaching in New Zealand and often returned to his previous congregations throughout his long career, said his daughter, Jan Shrader.
Wooten led the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention 1973-75, was vice president of Grand Canyon College in Phoenix for a year in the '70s and served as chaplain of the state House of Representatives in the same decade.
He also provided comfort as chaplain at Tucson General Hospital after he had officially retired and comforted countless other people while officiating over more than 3,000 funerals.
"My father had a lot of loves," Shrader said. "He loved baseball, he loved people, he loved preaching and he loved funerals, as strange as it sounds.
"He was really known for his ministry to the bereaved."
Wooten was also famed for his baseball card collection, which included more than 70,000 cards - dozens of them irreplaceable - and his willingness to talk about the game he loved.
That attitude also affected his ministry, Shrader said, recalling times when her father was working as a pastor in Ajo and would talk to known drug-runners in attempts to help them understand the gospel.
He also used his gift for oratory to reach out to minority-dominated churches, bridging the racial divide in the years before reconciliation was widely accepted, when separation was the rule, Shrader said.
''He loved to tell people how God had changed his life and really believed people could change. He was very redemptive in the way he looked at people,'' she said.
In addition to Shrader, Wooten is survived by Dorothy, his wife of 55 years; sons Dwight, of Kentucky and Rudy, of California; a sister, Mae Burn, Florida; a brother, Willard Wooten, Kentucky; sister-in-law Agnes Wooten of Kentucky; and grandsons Keith, Micah and Elliot Shrader, all of Tucson, and Wayne Wooten of Oregon.
Services were held at Casas Adobes Baptist Church, followed by a private committal service. Arrangements were by Evergreen Mortuary.
Arizona Daily Star February 15, 1999
The Rev. Henry Wooten, a longtime Tucson pastor who thrilled his congregation with his extensive knowledge of baseball lore as well as the gospel, died Saturday in a Tucson nursing home. He was 79.
Wooten preached at North Tucson Baptist, Pima Street Baptist, North Swan Baptist and El Con Baptist churches, and in Ajo at First Baptist Church.
He was born in Kentucky, the son of a sharecropper who moved his family to Detroit during the Depression.
Baseball was Wooten's chosen path, and he pitched his way through Detroit's famed sandlots with the likes of Don Lund, who made it with the Tigers, and Vern ''Junior'' Stephens, who played for the St. Louis Browns and Red Sox in the 1940s and '50s.
He began preaching in Arkansas in 1943, moved to Michigan, back to Kentucky and then Tennessee before making Arizona his home in 1956 and permanently settling in Tucson in 1969.
He spent time preaching in New Zealand and often returned to his previous congregations throughout his long career, said his daughter, Jan Shrader.
Wooten led the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention 1973-75, was vice president of Grand Canyon College in Phoenix for a year in the '70s and served as chaplain of the state House of Representatives in the same decade.
He also provided comfort as chaplain at Tucson General Hospital after he had officially retired and comforted countless other people while officiating over more than 3,000 funerals.
"My father had a lot of loves," Shrader said. "He loved baseball, he loved people, he loved preaching and he loved funerals, as strange as it sounds.
"He was really known for his ministry to the bereaved."
Wooten was also famed for his baseball card collection, which included more than 70,000 cards - dozens of them irreplaceable - and his willingness to talk about the game he loved.
That attitude also affected his ministry, Shrader said, recalling times when her father was working as a pastor in Ajo and would talk to known drug-runners in attempts to help them understand the gospel.
He also used his gift for oratory to reach out to minority-dominated churches, bridging the racial divide in the years before reconciliation was widely accepted, when separation was the rule, Shrader said.
''He loved to tell people how God had changed his life and really believed people could change. He was very redemptive in the way he looked at people,'' she said.
In addition to Shrader, Wooten is survived by Dorothy, his wife of 55 years; sons Dwight, of Kentucky and Rudy, of California; a sister, Mae Burn, Florida; a brother, Willard Wooten, Kentucky; sister-in-law Agnes Wooten of Kentucky; and grandsons Keith, Micah and Elliot Shrader, all of Tucson, and Wayne Wooten of Oregon.
Services were held at Casas Adobes Baptist Church, followed by a private committal service. Arrangements were by Evergreen Mortuary.
Arizona Daily Star February 15, 1999
Wooten preached at North Tucson Baptist, Pima Street Baptist, North Swan Baptist and El Con Baptist churches, and in Ajo at First Baptist Church.
He was born in Kentucky, the son of a sharecropper who moved his family to Detroit during the Depression.
Baseball was Wooten's chosen path, and he pitched his way through Detroit's famed sandlots with the likes of Don Lund, who made it with the Tigers, and Vern ''Junior'' Stephens, who played for the St. Louis Browns and Red Sox in the 1940s and '50s.
He began preaching in Arkansas in 1943, moved to Michigan, back to Kentucky and then Tennessee before making Arizona his home in 1956 and permanently settling in Tucson in 1969.
He spent time preaching in New Zealand and often returned to his previous congregations throughout his long career, said his daughter, Jan Shrader.
Wooten led the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention 1973-75, was vice president of Grand Canyon College in Phoenix for a year in the '70s and served as chaplain of the state House of Representatives in the same decade.
He also provided comfort as chaplain at Tucson General Hospital after he had officially retired and comforted countless other people while officiating over more than 3,000 funerals.
"My father had a lot of loves," Shrader said. "He loved baseball, he loved people, he loved preaching and he loved funerals, as strange as it sounds.
"He was really known for his ministry to the bereaved."
Wooten was also famed for his baseball card collection, which included more than 70,000 cards - dozens of them irreplaceable - and his willingness to talk about the game he loved.
That attitude also affected his ministry, Shrader said, recalling times when her father was working as a pastor in Ajo and would talk to known drug-runners in attempts to help them understand the gospel.
He also used his gift for oratory to reach out to minority-dominated churches, bridging the racial divide in the years before reconciliation was widely accepted, when separation was the rule, Shrader said.
''He loved to tell people how God had changed his life and really believed people could change. He was very redemptive in the way he looked at people,'' she said.
In addition to Shrader, Wooten is survived by Dorothy, his wife of 55 years; sons Dwight, of Kentucky and Rudy, of California; a sister, Mae Burn, Florida; a brother, Willard Wooten, Kentucky; sister-in-law Agnes Wooten of Kentucky; and grandsons Keith, Micah and Elliot Shrader, all of Tucson, and Wayne Wooten of Oregon.
Services were held at Casas Adobes Baptist Church, followed by a private committal service. Arrangements were by Evergreen Mortuary.
Arizona Daily Star February 15, 1999
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