Maurice Melvin Howell


1913-1999

Howell_Maurice_01

In 1952, Maurice Howell was living at 3425 13th Ave., N., Birmingham, Ala.

BIRTH: Pocahontas, Tenn., Aug. 14, 1913

W!FE: Virginia Ruth Howell

CHILDREN: Two

BAPTIZED BY: J. D. Tant, 1923

BEGAN PREACHING: Manila, Ark., 1931

TRAINING: Burritt College, Spencer, Tenn., Freed-Hardeman College, Harding ColIege

CHURCHES SERVED: Bolivar, Tenn, 1939-42, Foote Street, Corinth, Miss:, 1942-47, Central. Birmingham, Ala., 1949-;

RADIO: Corinth, Miss., Birmingham, Ala.

MEETINGS PER YEAR: Eight to twelve

PERMANENT CONTACT: F. E. Howell, Manila, Ark.

Preachers of Today, Vol. 1, 170

Obituary of Maurice Howell

Maurice Howell, retired minister and oldest member of our Howell family circle, passed away this morning (May 15, 1999) at 3:30 in Moulton, Alabama, at the retirement home where he had been living during the past year. He had been in declining health for the past two years, and death was attributed to arecent fall and a probable stroke. He was 85.

Helen Howell Walker states that funeral services are being planned for Monday, May 17, at 3 PM at Elliott's Funeral Home in Moulton. Brian Mashburn, grandson and youth minister for the West Houston Church of Christ, is expected to officiate as he did last year for the funeral of his grandmother, Virginia Howell.

Maurice had a long successful career as a preacher and served for 25 years as the located minister for churches in Boliver, Tenn.; Corinth, Miss.; Tuscumbia and Birmingham, Ala.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Port Arthur, Texas. He held many revival meetings throughout the South, appeared at college lectureships, and was noted especially for an "All Scripture Sermon" which he delivered many times by special request.

In 1965, tragedy struck when he was diagnosed with a large brain tumor. The surgery left him with scrambled vision and balance problems, and he was pronounced "legally blind." He struggled hard to overcome his sight problems and to resume his preaching career, which he was able to do with the aid of his wife, who assisted him constantly by reading and driving for him.

In spite of severe handicaps, he returned to the ministry and for more than a decade was the pulpit minister for the Moulton (Ala.) Church of Christ. Virginia became ill with Binswanger's Disease and was in a nursing home for many years before her death in 1998.

Maurice is survived by two daughters: Helen Walker of Moulton and Sara Jean Mashburn of Houston, Texas. He leaves five grandchildren: Alan Mashburn of Nashville, Tenn., Brian and Craig Mashburn of Houston, and Cara and Charis Walker of Houston; and one great grandson, Steven Mashburn of Houston. He is also survived by one brother, Marvin Essary Howell of Sacramento, California.

Maurice was born to Franklin Ezra and Vadeene (Essary) Howell on August 14, 1913, in Essary Springs, Tennessee, a small town in Hardeman County which had been settled by and named for his great grandfather, Benjamin Essary. Essary Springs had once been a health resort and home of a college founded by A. G. Freed, which was later to become Freed-Hardeman College, where
many members of the Howell family have attended. The Howells moved to Manila, Arkansas, when Maurice was four and he grew up and went to high school in Manila and in Blytheville, Ark.

He attended Burritt College in Spencer, Tenn., and began preaching in his late teenage years. He and George DeHoff of Lepanto, Ark., were boyhood friends and college roommates, and planned their preaching careers together. They attended Burritt, Freed-Hardeman College, and Harding College together, and kept in contact through the years. DeHoff became best known
as a writer and school administrator, and Maurice excelled in located work with churches and conducting revival meetings.

During his long career, Maurice preached for several hundred revival meetings, performed many weddings, and conducted many funerals--including the weddings and funerals for members of his immediate and extended family.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/TNHARDEM/1999-05/0926863360
Lloyd Nelms