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Obituary: The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 25, 2002

Rev. Kash D. Amburgy, Lebanon, Ohio Radio and Tent Evangelist and Sales Legend.

(March 18, 1922 - October 23, 2002)

"Save Ca$h with Kash" and "Good Ol' Country Boy" were quotes synonymous with his name.

With a preacher's fire, a salesman's gift of gab, and inexhaustible drive, the Rev. Kash Amburgy left Eastern Kentucky in 1947 to build his Warren County empire as the self-promoter who became most familiar to the tri-state with his radio sermons and television ads encouraging buyers to "Save cash with Kash."

Rev. Amburgy —— who preached for 60 years and sold homes, lumber, televisions, appliances and furniture at his South Lebanon business — died on Wednesday, October 23, 2002, a month after giving his last radio broadcast sermon. He was 80.

"First and foremost, he was a man of the Lord," 20-year Warren County Commissioner Mike Kilburn said Friday. "He was a devoted Christian."

But many in the area are aware of Rev. Amburgy — and perhaps the Warren County city of South Lebanon — from Amburgy's advertisements for his "Kash's Big Bargain Barn" where he sold furniture and appliances.

He ended many of his commercials with "Follow the arrows, follow the cars to Kash's Big Bargain Barn, South Leb-a-non, Ohio, where you save cash with Kash."

"I'll miss Kash," South Lebanon Mayor James Smith said Friday. "I've known him pretty much my whole life."

Proudly calling himself "the ol' country preacher," Rev. Amburgy developed a work ethic that was born in Owsley County, Kentucky, where his father owned a general merchandise store. Deciding eight grades was enough of school, Rev. Amburgy dropped out after convincing his father to let him work full-time in the store. Soon, he later boasted, the store was drawing customers from miles away.

The second of 11 children, Rev. Amburgy became a Christian at age nine and an ordained minister just four days short of his 20th birthday.

He then mixed his two greatest professional passions — God and salesmanship — when he spent eight years as a door-to-door Bible salesman, setting a record — selling 170 family Bibles in six days.

"I take to selling like a goose goin' barefoot in the winter," he used to say.

But he may have made his best sales pitch while selling Bibles in Detroit, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Mary Lou.

"He was a kind, big-hearted man who loved people and tried to bless them all his life," said Mary Lou Amburgy. "He wanted his life to count. We had 53 years, seven months and five days of happiness."

His father named him "Kash" for a reason, Rev. Amburgy used to joke, so "he'd always have some of it around."

The name proved prophetic.

In addition to his real estate ventures, Rev. Amburgy owned a lumber yard, gas station and ice cream store.

In addition to his business success, he continued his devotion to spreading the Gospel.

At their zenith, Rev. Amburgy's radio broadcasts — where the preacher often turned salesman and regaled his listeners with commercials about his business for as long as 15 minutes — were heard as many as six times a day on 124 stations through the South and Midwest.

"That's pretty good for a country boy," he said.

His maniacal drive — working at least 12 hours per day, six days per week, taking Sundays "off" to preach — helped him build a fortune that, on paper, reached $3 million in the mid-1950, with much of the money coming from housing developments in South Lebanon. But his real estate empire crashed in 1957, and he had to put his businesses into receivership. He vowed to work to repay all of the creditors, with interest, and he did.

He turned the lumber yard into a store that became his Bargain Barn, where he sold appliances and furniture for 23 years before closing it in 1983.

For more than two decades, Feb. 28 has been marked as Kash Amburgy Day in South Lebanon.

In 1963, he and his wife opened a travel agency specializing in religious retreats to the Holy Land. They took more than 6,000 pilgrims on trips to the Holy Land before the tours ended in 2000.

"They know Kash Amburgy in Israel as well as they do in South Lebanon. That's the truth," said Smith, the South Lebanon Mayor.

Rev. Amburgy suffered a stroke about a month before he was "Promoted to Glory", said his wife. He died at Cedar Village rehabilitation center in Mason.

Visitation was from 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday at the Stine-Kilburn Funeral Home in South Lebanon. There was also visitation from noon-1 p.m. on Monday at the Kings Point Church of God, Ohio 48, Maineville, immediately followed by the funeral.

Memorials may be made to the Bible Church of God Radio Broadcast, P.O. Box 98, South Lebanon, Ohio, 45065.