Rorie, Jr., Thomas Oliver
3/16/1975
1890-1975 |
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| Thomas Oliver Rorie, Jr., was born to the ministry in a parsonage in Homer, Georgia, May 15, 1890, and passed away March 16, 1975, at home in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He and Mrs. Rorie, the former Amy Lorraine Galloway of Cabot, Arkansas, had recently moved there to be near their daughter, Mrs. H. C. Brown. He is also survived by a son, Kenneth G. Rorie, minister in the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. At an early age his parents moved to Arkansas to serve Methodist appointments. Out of that pioneer parsonage came several children, among them being Paul Quain Rorie and Thomas Oliver Rorie, Jr., each to enter the ministry in Arkansas. Thomas O. Rorie, Jr., was admitted on trial in the Little Rock Conference in 1914 and ordained Elder in 1916. He had been educated in the public schools of Arkansas, at Henderson-Brown and Hendrix Colleges and at Vanderbilt University. At a later date he was able to both serve a church in Texas and attend Austin Seminary, from which he received the Bachelor of Divinity degree. Transferring to the West Texas Conference, he served in Midland, Laredo and Victoria, and then transferred to Missouri in 1936. In 1949 he transferred to the Louisiana Conference, from which he retired in 1957 after 41 years of service in the Methodist ministry. God call on a Sunday morning. He and his wife were together at home, as was their wish. She was by his side, lovingly meeting his needs, when he went to sleep for the last time. They had been married sixty years, side by side from beginning to end. Brother Rorie was a gifted orator. As with everyone, there were human frailties of personality and habit, but he took great pride in his pulpit preparation and delivery. While in Vanderbilt University he won the Young Medal for Oratory, an award of that era for seminarians of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was an avid reader and lover of poetry, and his sermons reflected a poetic and biblical quality, vividly illustrated and presented in the oratorical fashion of his generation. Not often does a minister conduct a memorial service for his father, but it was my privilege, as well as a privilege to write his memoir. He helped me into the glorious ministry, and I hope I have helped him on into an even greater world that God has prepared for those who love and serve Him with gladness. May he rest in peace, and our memories abide. |
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| Source: Journal Louisiana Conference, 1975; p. 183 By Kenneth G. Rorie | |
