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By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — To Gwen Cummings, the late Marshall Keeble was more than a famous traveling evangelist.
He was her “Pop.”
Keeble was born in 1878, 13 years after the end of the Civil War. He died in 1968, 16 days after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Keeble’s formal education stopped at the seventh grade, and the Tennessee native lived most of his 89 years in the Jim Crow era of racial segregation.
Yet the humble, humorous son of former slaves became a renowned gospel preacher, baptizing tens of thousands of people, planting hundreds of churches and quietly working for integration.
Related: New exhibit honors renowned evangelist
I first met Cummings, Keeble’s great-granddaughter, when I interviewed 104-year-old Laura Keeble — Marshall’s widow — for The Associated Press in 2003.
Twenty-three years later, Cummings invited me to cover this week’s opening of a new exhibit at Nashville’s Jackson Street Church of Christ paying tribute to Marshall Keeble’s enduring legacy.
I enjoyed catching up with Cummings, 75, and hearing her personal reflections on the Keebles.
These highlights from our discussion have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity:
This column appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.
Photo by Ted Parks
Faith. Family. Fastballs. 