WILLIS H. FOWLER

SHELDON - Services were held at 2 p.m. Friday, at the First Christian Church in Sheldon, for Willis Hadley Fowler, 93, Sheldon, who died Monday night, Dec. 2, 2002, at Lakeview Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Lamar, following an illness of a few months. Revs. Harold Fowler and Harold Starbuck officiated. Burial was in Sheldon Cemetery.
Arrangements were under the direction of Beeny-Ferry Funeral Home, Sheldon. Memorial contributions may be made to Ozark Christian College, Joplin, or Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, Tenn., in care of the funeral home.

Survivors include his wife, Maxine Fowler of Lamar; a son, Harold Fowler, Matelica, Italy; a daughter, Alice Marilyn Wilkins, St. Pauls, NC; 12 grandchildren; numerous great-grandchildren; several great-great-grandchildren; two brothers, Floyd and Beverly Fowler, both of Sheldon, and a sister, Althea Humphrey, Nevada. He was preceded in death by nine brothers and sisters.

Mr. Fowler was born Dec. 11, 1908, in Sheldon, to Edward Garfield and Matilda Jane (Beisly) Fowler. He was reared in the Sheldon area, and attended the Ferry School as a youth. He was a member of the First Christian Church of Sheldon.

He spent more than 70 years in the Christian ministry; conducted three radio ministries in Texas, Kansas and Arkansas; served a brief chaplaincy in the Oklahoma State Senate; conducted more than 300 revival meetings and held pastorates from Virginia to Texas; spent 23 years in Oklahoma; was a mountain missionary for four years in the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky and Virginia; authored five books; was co-founder of Midwest Christian College in Oklahoma City, Okla., and college evangelist and part-time instructor for that institution for three years.

He married Rita Fawn Jones on Aug. 5, 1930, in Adrian. She died Sept. 24, 1963. He later married Fontella Maxine Roland on July 2, 1964, in Jerico Springs.