Reverend H Fred Blankenship

View Funeral WebcastRev. Happy Fred Blankenship, 96, retired minister and District Superintendent of the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church, died Thursday, January 7, 2010 at his residence in Nashville.The family will visit with friends Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. at Oakes & Nichols and Monday after 12:00 Noon at Brentwood United Methodist Church, 309 Franklin Road, Brentwood, with the service following at 2:00 p.m. Bishop Robert H. Spain, Bishop William Morris, and Rev. Edd Templeton will officiate. Burial will follow in Spring Hill Cemetery, Madison, Tennessee. Notes of sympathy may be sent to www.oakesandnichols. com. Memorials to McKendree Village, designated for the Fund for Widows of United Methodist Ministers, 4343 Lebanon Pike, Hermitage, TN 37076.Born July 25, 1913, in Hardin County, near Sardis, Tennessee, Happy Fred was the tenth of fifteen children born to the late Joseph Butler and Ardelia Orr Blankenship. Raised in the little Lebanon community, Reverend Blankenship and his brothers worked the land with their father while the girls helped their mother with chores and the younger children. As was the custom in the rural South during the Depression, he was expected to drop out of school after the eighth grade. However, his father allowed him to go to high school -as long as education did not get in the way of farmingéand young Fred graduated from Saltillo High School, class of 1932, of which he was president. His senior year, he was a member of the Saltillo championship basketball team that went on to the state tournament in Knoxville, and he placed first in the district in the mile run.The Sunday after his high school graduation, he preached his first sermon, at the Lebanon Methodist Church, in the Central Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On Christmas Day of that year, he performed his first wedding, for which he was paid a dollar. At that time, there were thirty preachers in that little conference, which went from the Mississippi River at Memphis all the way to Chattanooga; three of those preachers were Blankenship brothers, Frank, Fred and Floyd.His first charge was the Savannah Circuit (Eureka, Robertson's Chapel, Wesley's Chapel and Oak Grove with two additional "part-time" churches, Greenwood and Highland). This charge paid a salary of $400.00, but in 1932-33, he received $75.00, "not all of it in cash." In his first year, he had no car, so he often ran between churches (in 1933, he traded a Bible for a car!).Ordained a deacon in 1934, in 1936 he was ordained an elder, in full connection to the Conference. In 1939, after the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South had reunited, Reverend Blankenship, although already fully ordained, began his work toward his college degree, from Cumberland University in Lebanon, graduating in 1943 with a B.A. in English and History. He rode the bus from Dowelltown to Lebanon three times a week, taking classes all day long. He received the Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt University in 1948.Preaching fulltime as he pursued his education, Reverend Blankenship moved to Columbia in 1946. There he started two new churches, Saint Luke's and Riverside Methodist. In October 1948, he met the pretty young assistant home demonstration agent for Maury County, Miss June Wheeler, of Chattanooga, who had planned the 4-H Club banquet at the newly-built Riverside Methodist. Miss Wheeler was interested in a career and a master's degree in food science; Reverend Blankenship, who had just started two new churches and had bought a new gun and waders, was interested in church extension and evangelism, fishing and hunting. Neither was interested in marriage. The Lord, however, had other plans; they were married on October 2, 1949, enjoying sixty years of married life, with Mrs. Blankenship teaching and working with Reverend Blankenship in the church and in the community. Mrs. Blankenship passed away on September 15, 2009.Reverend Blankenship's career reflects the history of the Methodist Church in middle Tennessee. He was present for the two important mergers: first in 1939, when the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Protestant Church united; second, in 1968, when the United Brethren joined with the Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church. A dynamic preacher and old-fashioned pastor, Reverend Blankenship was mentored by a great Methodist evangelist, the late Harry Denman. Reverend Blankenship served in leadership roles in evangelism and missions throughout the Tennessee and the greater Southeastern Jurisdictional Conferences. He raised the first million dollar gifts for the Tennessee conference, 1968-71: for Martin College, Pulaski; Methodist camps and assembly grounds; and McKendree Manor. As district superintendent, he served the Bishop as vice-president of the Bishop's cabinet.A natural leader, "Brother Fred" built churches and congregations by hard work, good preaching, a focus on the Lord and not himself, and the ability to help people make connections. Always active in the community, he was a member of service organizations including the Lion's, Rotary, Civitan and Kiwanis Clubs; he was also a thirty-second degree Mason, was president of his Masonic class, and was affiliated with Jere Baxter Lodge.From 1932 to 1980, he served the following appointments: Savannah Circuit, Tullahoma Circuit, Collinwood Circuit, Smithville Circuit, Dowelltown Circuit, Hendersonville Circuit, Riverside, Belle Meade, Tulip Street, Lawrenceburg First, Shelbyville First, Columbia First, Conference Council Office Associate Director, Inglewood, and the Murfreesboro District Superintendent, from which he retired in 1980. After that time, he served as minister of visitation of Belle Meade and Forest Hills Methodist churches. He retired yet again and was called back, at age 83, to serve Pennington Bend and Glencliff United Methodist, the latter of which his brother Floyd had served years before. Preaching his last sermon in May 2007, at the age of 93, he stayed active and sharp as a tack until the last week of his life. Including all the congregations in almost 50 years of active service and 17 years in "retirement," Brother Fred served 58 churches in 17 appointments, taking over 4000 members into the Church. Large or small, he loved his congregations, counting it a privilege to serve. His relationship as the second pastor of Belle Meade United Methodist Church (1952-56) was especially interesting, as he was the pastor who worked closely with the late H.G. Hill as this new congregation in a developing part of Nashville had to choose whether to buy the Belle Meade Mansion and convert it into a church or purchase the current property off Davidson Road. The growth of that church has mirrored the growth of west Nashville. For United Methodists in west and middle Tennessee, few have not been touched by the ministry of H. Fred Blankenship.Survivors include daughters Judy and husband George Cheatham, Greensboro, NC; Julia Rich, Nashville; Freda and husband John Evans, Madison; Freddie and husband Douglas Summers, Murfreesboro; son-in-law George D. Ferguson, Pulaski. Rev. Blankenship was preceded in death by his wife, June, who passed away, September 2009, and his eldest daughter, Martha Ferguson, in March, 2009. Grandchildren include Sarah Hampton and Dayton Cheatham; Matthew King and wife Trisha; Amelia Lawrence; Megan and husband Robert James; Peter Ferguson and wife Emily; Kerry Evans and wife Emily; Keith Evans; ten great-grandchildren; and many, many beloved nieces and nephews. Of the 15 Blankenship children, he is survived by sisters Geneva Craig of Sardis, TN, and Ruby Hamilton of Kingsland, AR; he is predeceased by sisters Annie Bridges, Mae Tarpley, Edna Hopper, and brothers James, Frank, Joseph, Allen, Edgar, and Floyd. Three children died in childhood: Ruth, Horace, and Lloyd.Pallbearers are W.D. Turner, Kevin Lamb, Durand Hite, Mike Perritt, Rev. Thomas Vann, Tommy Vann, and Reese Smith. Honorary pallbearers are Members of the Tennessee Annual Conference; Sunday School classes Challenger (Arlington UMC), JOY (Forest Hills UMC), Robert I Moore (Brentwood UMC); funeral directors Fentress Casey, Henderson, TN, and Tony Sowell and Jane Gray Sowell, Columbia, TN; and physicians, Drs. Robert Faber, Russell Ward, Ira Johnson, Joshua Smithson, and James Hudgins.