Bentley, Robert Mack
8/1/1978
- August 1, 1978 |
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| We mourn the loss of one of the great saints of the Lord, Reverend R. Mack Bentley. On Wednesday, August 1, Brother Mack departed this life quietly and peacefully while taking his afternoon nap. Our faith bids us to think happily about our dead. It is not for them that we ought to mourn but rather for ourselves and our loss. There is much about him that brightened our lives for which we are thankful—his unshakeable faith and trust in God; his enthusiasm for life; his wit and the twinkle of his eyes when he told one of his stories; his love of family and friends and his ability to make a friend of every acquaintance; his pastoral prayers that ushered one into the presence of God. Mack Bentley devoted his life in service to Jesus Christ through the United Methodist Church. He became a member on trial in the North Alabama Conference in 1923, serving there three years. From 1926 to 1931 he served in New Mexico. In 1931 he transferred to Louisiana and served appointments at Gordon Avenue in Monroe, Wisner, Bunkie, Pineville, Cedar Grove and Caddo Heights in Shreveport, Tallulah, Canal Street in New Orleans, Abbeville and Cameron. Following retirement in June 1968, he and his wife, Ethel, resided in a retired ministers’ home in Lafayette; and he continued to serve the church as minister of visitation at Asbury Church until he died. Survivors are his wife Myrtis Ethel Whatley Bentley; two daughters, Mrs. Jean B. Strother of Lafayette and Mrs. James (Betty) E. Garrett of Dallas, Texas; one son, Robert Mack Bentley, Jr., of Wichita Falls, Texas; seven grandsons; and three sisters. |
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| Source: Journal of the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church, 1979, p. 179 By Clyde C. Frazier, Jr. | |
