Andrew Walter Pickett was born February 9, 1895, at Kirbyville, Missouri. He was the fifth of eleven children of John M. and Lenora (Rittenhouse) Pickett. His paternal grandfather , David Hadley (Piggott) Pickett came from Alamance County, North Carolina and Tennessee. He was a preacher and a pioneer; preaching the first sermon in Forsyth when there was not a professing Christian in the town. He preached in many places and on one of these pilgrimages during his first summer in Taney County one of his mules drowned in White River. The citizens made up a purse of $40 and bought him another.
Andrew was a farmer, merchant, school teacher; by his own admission,"a jack of all trades, but a master of none." In 1935 he moved his family to Arkansas to sell "Harry Budd" washing machines. He told his prospective clients, "this machine will clean anything except a bad reputation." While selling these machines in Kentucky World War II broke out. Production ceased as metal was needed in the war effort. He and his wife found many jobs in a factory that made shells for the Navy. When the war was over the family returned to the "old Pickett Place"; the farm his dad had homesteaded.
Andrew was preceded in death by his wife Lucy (Campbell) February 25, 1984. She was a granddaughter of John Speer another minister of God's Word in the early days of Taney County. Their two youngest children, Peggy (Buck) and Hohn H. Pickett died before their parents, Andrew's survivors include four sons, Melvin of Payette, Idaho, Wilbur of Riesel, Texas, Cleo of Kirbyville, Missouri, and Argus of Galena, Missouri; one daughter, Wanda Ehlers of Overland Park, Kansas; a brother, Charley of Norco, California; and a sister, Nellie Coffelt, of Kirbyville. His oldest sister, Josie Rozell, age 98, died six days after Andrew.
Andrew enjoyed singing God's praises up to the very end. He sang with his daughter the night before he was called home to the Lord on October 11, 1985. His body was laid to rest at Ozarks Memorial Cemetery, Branson, Missouri. We cannot bring him back, but we can go to him.
Source: White River Association Of General Baptists