Memorial Service for Rev. Calvin White, Louisville Kentucky

Miss Harriet and I, along with Favor (our six-year-old) traveled 110 miles to Louisville on Friday, June 24, to attend a memorial service in honor of Rev. Calvin D. White, my late mentor. The service was hosted at First Virginia Avenue Baptist Church, where the pastor is Rev. Charles Duncan, under whose pastorate then Deacon Calvin White answered the call to the preaching ministry. Rev. Duncan was then pastor of Beargrass Baptist Church, the pastor Rev. White later pastored for some 18 years.

During the service, the Louisville Fire Department and the US Navy paid proper respects to Rev. White, who retired from the Fire Department with the rank of Captain.

The guests of honor were Rev. White's widow, Mrs. Patricia White, and Rev. White's 95-year-old mother.

The excellent singing and fine preaching aside, the memorial service turned out to be such a reunion for those of us who had known each other through Beargrass Baptist when Rev. White was the pastor there. We shared tears, laughter, handshakes and hugs.

In our one-on-one with Patricia White in the front row of the church, I presented her with a framed lifetime tribute that I composed to her beloved husband. In the tribute I highlighted how her husband's ministry had touched the lives of Liberians, Ghanaians, and even Americans, when he led Beargrass Baptist to financially help us to build the place of worship for Christian Inter-Denominational Assembly (CHRIDA) at the Liberian refugee camp in Ghana, West Africa. Today, CHRIDA has branches in some Ghanaian towns, in Monrovia (capital city of Liberia), and in Minnesota (USA).

Finally, I made it clear to the White family that it was my secret plan to surprise Rev. White with a copy of my upcoming book, Refugee Was My Name. I let Pat White know she will receive a copy once the book is published.

After visiting with Dennis & Juanita White at Rev. White's mom's house, then Patricia White at her Country Inn suite, we, the Matallys swung by Moluba Kamara's African food store on Taylor Boulevard in Louisville before trekking back to our home in Owensboro.

By the way, Dennis & Juanita White promised to organize a book party when Refugee Was My Name comes out. I think they'll make it a Beargrass thing, and that will make it even more special.

Rev. Calvin White is Deceased; I Wanted Him to Read This Book!

Friday June 17 was one of those days. On that day I got two calls from two different individuals inviting me to two separate memorial services at the same church in the same city during the same month (June), only on different dates! I almost thought it was the same memorial service. Or is it a joint memorial service for two individuals? May be...

Anyway, the first person was the widow of Rev. George Sebree, my friend and mentor in Owensboro, beginning late 1994. The other person was Rev. Calvin White, my friend and mentor, during my days at Southern Seminary in Louisville, from mid 1991 to early 1994. When I moved to Owensboro I lost touch with Pastor White, who left Beargrass Baptist Church and moved to Virginia. In 2004, Rev. White began pastoring again, the same year we founded Church For All in Owensboro, Kentucky.

When Dennis White called on Friday to inform me of his elder brother's death and the planned memorial service, my heart sank, because something really strange happened to me just weeks before...

Today I called Patricia White, Pastor White's widow, and she told me of the online obituary where I could comment in a Guest Book. Here are the words I posted in memory of my precious friend:

"I have never met an equally generous and good-spirited minister of the Gospel. I was a student at Southern Seminary in Louisville when Rev. White wholehearted embraced me as his African brother into the fold of the Beargrass Church family. When I got stranded at the Liberian Refugee Camp in Ghana for 11 months, he and the Church paid for my plane ticket to return to the US. With his leadership Beargrass sent money to build the sanctuary for the refugee church. Then he followed that by throwing a big Welcome Party for Harriet & Daneto (my wife & daughter) when they arrived in America in January 1995. I should have appreciated him much more for the many ways he blessed my life. Rev. White, I look forward to seeing you and your huge smile in Heaven. Your works of love follow you."


Pastor White is one of the key persons I write about in Refugee Was My Name, and I was looking forward to sending a copy of the book to him. Wow! How quickly time slips by and individuals slip into eternity. What guarantee do I have that my book will be published before I die?