Longtime preacher always answered call to serve
Rev. Foy T. Huckabee preached up until the day he died, conducting more than 1,000 funerals and almost as many weddings during his 62 years on the pulpit.
''He never turned anybody down,'' said his 47-year-old son, Bradley Huckabee, who lived nearby. ''Whenever somebody called him he was there.''
Rev. Huckabee conducted his last funeral at 4 p.m. Friday in Selmer. He returned home about 6 p.m. and talked to his son at 7 p.m. But that night, he died of heart failure at home.
He was 78.
His wife, Dalphine Weatherford Huckabee, had died 11 years earlier on the same date.
Services will be at 1:30 p.m. today at Shackelford Funeral Home of Selmer with burial in Falcon Cemetery near here.
Rev. Huckabee was born in 1916 and started preaching in 1932 at age 16. He did his first funeral at age 17 and when he died, his ledger indicated he had conducted 1,456 funerals and 955 weddings, said his daughter, Brenda Rankin, 51, who also lives in Selmer.
''He's just a humble country preacher,'' Rankin said, ''a friend to everyone. His church life came first and that's just how we were raised.''
In the 1930s, Rev. Huckabee traveled often from church to church, conducting a sermon in the morning in one chapel, then driving to another for an afternoon or evening sermon. Back then, most churches couldn't afford a full-time ministry, and Rev. Huckabee went wherever he was called, his son said.
It wasn't uncommon for his pay to be in chickens and eggs, his son said.
About five years ago, Rev. Huckabee cut back to part-time work, filling in occasionally and handling weddings and funerals. He was a member of Moore's Schoolhouse Baptist Church near here.
He had been in the hospital three times since November because of heart problems and complications from emphysema, his son said.
Rev. Huckabee also leaves a sister, Laverne Baker, of Selmer, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
FTH
Rev. Foy T. Huckabee preached up until the day he died, conducting more than 1,000 funerals and almost as many weddings during his 62 years on the pulpit.
''He never turned anybody down,'' said his 47-year-old son, Bradley Huckabee, who lived nearby. ''Whenever somebody called him he was there.''
Rev. Huckabee conducted his last funeral at 4 p.m. Friday in Selmer. He returned home about 6 p.m. and talked to his son at 7 p.m. But that night, he died of heart failure at home.
He was 78.
His wife, Dalphine Weatherford Huckabee, had died 11 years earlier on the same date.
Services will be at 1:30 p.m. today at Shackelford Funeral Home of Selmer with burial in Falcon Cemetery near here.
Rev. Huckabee was born in 1916 and started preaching in 1932 at age 16. He did his first funeral at age 17 and when he died, his ledger indicated he had conducted 1,456 funerals and 955 weddings, said his daughter, Brenda Rankin, 51, who also lives in Selmer.
''He's just a humble country preacher,'' Rankin said, ''a friend to everyone. His church life came first and that's just how we were raised.''
In the 1930s, Rev. Huckabee traveled often from church to church, conducting a sermon in the morning in one chapel, then driving to another for an afternoon or evening sermon. Back then, most churches couldn't afford a full-time ministry, and Rev. Huckabee went wherever he was called, his son said.
It wasn't uncommon for his pay to be in chickens and eggs, his son said.
About five years ago, Rev. Huckabee cut back to part-time work, filling in occasionally and handling weddings and funerals. He was a member of Moore's Schoolhouse Baptist Church near here.
He had been in the hospital three times since November because of heart problems and complications from emphysema, his son said.
Rev. Huckabee also leaves a sister, Laverne Baker, of Selmer, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
FTH
Longtime preacher always answered call to serve
Rev. Foy T. Huckabee preached up until the day he died, conducting more than 1,000 funerals and almost as many weddings during his 62 years on the pulpit.
''He never turned anybody down,'' said his 47-year-old son, Bradley Huckabee, who lived nearby. ''Whenever somebody called him he was there.''
Rev. Huckabee conducted his last funeral at 4 p.m. Friday in Selmer. He returned home about 6 p.m. and talked to his son at 7 p.m. But that night, he died of heart failure at home.
He was 78.
His wife, Dalphine Weatherford Huckabee, had died 11 years earlier on the same date.
Services will be at 1:30 p.m. today at Shackelford Funeral Home of Selmer with burial in Falcon Cemetery near here.
Rev. Huckabee was born in 1916 and started preaching in 1932 at age 16. He did his first funeral at age 17 and when he died, his ledger indicated he had conducted 1,456 funerals and 955 weddings, said his daughter, Brenda Rankin, 51, who also lives in Selmer.
''He's just a humble country preacher,'' Rankin said, ''a friend to everyone. His church life came first and that's just how we were raised.''
In the 1930s, Rev. Huckabee traveled often from church to church, conducting a sermon in the morning in one chapel, then driving to another for an afternoon or evening sermon. Back then, most churches couldn't afford a full-time ministry, and Rev. Huckabee went wherever he was called, his son said.
It wasn't uncommon for his pay to be in chickens and eggs, his son said.
About five years ago, Rev. Huckabee cut back to part-time work, filling in occasionally and handling weddings and funerals. He was a member of Moore's Schoolhouse Baptist Church near here.
He had been in the hospital three times since November because of heart problems and complications from emphysema, his son said.
Rev. Huckabee also leaves a sister, Laverne Baker, of Selmer, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
FTH
Rev. Foy T. Huckabee preached up until the day he died, conducting more than 1,000 funerals and almost as many weddings during his 62 years on the pulpit.
''He never turned anybody down,'' said his 47-year-old son, Bradley Huckabee, who lived nearby. ''Whenever somebody called him he was there.''
Rev. Huckabee conducted his last funeral at 4 p.m. Friday in Selmer. He returned home about 6 p.m. and talked to his son at 7 p.m. But that night, he died of heart failure at home.
He was 78.
His wife, Dalphine Weatherford Huckabee, had died 11 years earlier on the same date.
Services will be at 1:30 p.m. today at Shackelford Funeral Home of Selmer with burial in Falcon Cemetery near here.
Rev. Huckabee was born in 1916 and started preaching in 1932 at age 16. He did his first funeral at age 17 and when he died, his ledger indicated he had conducted 1,456 funerals and 955 weddings, said his daughter, Brenda Rankin, 51, who also lives in Selmer.
''He's just a humble country preacher,'' Rankin said, ''a friend to everyone. His church life came first and that's just how we were raised.''
In the 1930s, Rev. Huckabee traveled often from church to church, conducting a sermon in the morning in one chapel, then driving to another for an afternoon or evening sermon. Back then, most churches couldn't afford a full-time ministry, and Rev. Huckabee went wherever he was called, his son said.
It wasn't uncommon for his pay to be in chickens and eggs, his son said.
About five years ago, Rev. Huckabee cut back to part-time work, filling in occasionally and handling weddings and funerals. He was a member of Moore's Schoolhouse Baptist Church near here.
He had been in the hospital three times since November because of heart problems and complications from emphysema, his son said.
Rev. Huckabee also leaves a sister, Laverne Baker, of Selmer, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
FTH
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