Homer Floyd Gunn

Notes:

Lynell Gentry Cordell received the following information about Homer Gunn from his son, Harold Gunn: "Homer was the pastor of Baptist churches in Kewanee, Matthews and Neelyille, Missouri, Fayetteville, Arkansas and Oklahoma City, OK. He was a well prepared, scholarly preacher and a forceful, articulate speaker, but disliked the administrative duties of being a pastor. When he was pastor of Central Avenue Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, his largest pastorate, he was elected Vice President of the American Baptist Association, a large national organization of Baptist churches.

He became an Interstate Missionary for the North American Baptist Association about 1951. This career change satisfied his longing to return to the type of ministry he loved the most. When he first became a minister, he had conducted a highly successful revival in La Forge, Missouri, then organized a church that literally changed the character of the entire community. Homer's interstate missionary work took him all over Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, where he established many Baptist churches, then led them into organizing into NABA affiliated state associations. His family lived in Marion, Rockford and El Paso, Illinois, while he traveled and performed his work. These were difficult years for Carmen, because she had to bear most of the family burden while their six children were young and in school. During the last 8-10 years before his retirement, Homer took Carmen with him on all his travels.

Homer retired in 1974 and moved from his home in El Paso, Ill. to Quitman, AR, Carmen's home town, in 1976. Illinois Baptists gave him a new car as a retirement present. During the remaining ten years of his life, he and Carmen were members of Sand Springs Baptist Church, near Quitman. He turned down several requests from area churches that wanted him to serve as an interim pastor. He loved tinkering with machinery, travel, history and reading.
He died at the Methodist Hospital in Houston, after an unsuccessful heart valve replacement operation. He had Rheumatic fever, which damaged the valve, when he was a boy. After the operation, the doctors were unable to revive him. His funeral was held at Sand Springs Baptist Church and he is buried in the Gunn family plot at Kilgore Cemetery, Birdtown, near his parents. Several of his boyhood friends from the same small rural community, all now prominent Arkansas Baptist ministers, spoke at his funeral.

Kilgore Cemetery, where he is buried, is next door to the farm where Homer lived as a boy. The entrance to the farm is marked by two large oak trees, planted by Homer and Carl when they were boys. At their father's burial service at Kilgore, Homer and Carl argued enthusiastically about which of them had planted the larger of the two trees.
Homer was 6' 4", black haired and 160-170 pounds. He wrote poetry, was artistically inclined and was a good musician. His voice was a medium baritone, with good volume."

Homer married Carmen Isabell Trawick on 30 Nov 1932 in Central Community, Cleburne County, Arkansas. Carmen (daughter of George Washington Trawick, Jr. and Cora Alice Thompson) was born on 17 May 1908 in Central Community, Cleburne County, Arkansas; died on 30 Nov 2000 in Pandora, Putnam County, Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]