Garland Duke Gregory was 77 years old the day that the train to Heaven, with Jesus Christ as the Conductor, stopped at his bedside and offered him the ride he had worked for his entire life.
Brother Gregory fought long and hard to regain his strength after a stroke in 2008 and heart bypass surgery in 2009, but he never quite recovered.
He will be remembered as an eloquent preacher of the gospel, and a kind, gentle, and sincere Christian man. He accepted the call to ministry while attending David Lipscomb in 1957 and spent the rest of his life preaching the gospel. His sacrifices for the Lord’s work included preaching the gospel at churches in Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Texas, and South Carolina.
A well-known Church of Christ evangelist, he loved speaking at meetings and revivals across the country, many of them at his own expense. He baptized hundreds of people during his career, in church baptisteries as well as local creeks and rivers. He is responsible for the successful marriages of many couples across the South and it is regrettable that the breadth of his career accomplishments cannot be adequately accounted for in this account of his life.
But he would want it that way.
A humble man who never compromised his beliefs, he gave his life to the Church. The weather was never too bad or an illness so great that would keep him from worshipping whenever and wherever the doors of the Church were open. He believed the New Testament to be the full and complete revelation of Christ and could quote it word for word and cite book, chapter, and verse. He could do this for the Old Testament as well. His great example and good works will forever be remembered by those who came into contact with him.
The son of James Crockett Gregory and Florence Johnson Gregory both deceased, Brother Gregory was born in Pulaski, Virginia along with his sisters who survive: Margaret Sullivan and her husband Hoite, of Pulaski, Virginia; Doris Akers, and her husband Royce, of Charleston, South Carolina; and Janie Polutta, and her husband Larry, also of Charleston, South Carolina. His brother, Samuel Fredric Gregory, also born in Pulaski, Virginia passed away in 2009 in Lubbock, Texas.
He is survived by the love of his life and wife of 55 years, Cherie Holden Gregory and four children: Catherine Chambers and her husband Ray of Christiansburg, Virginia; Caryn Pace and her husband Kenneth, of Pelham, Tennessee; William Patrick Gregory of Manchester, Tennessee; and James Price Gregory of Dallas Texas. He treasured the time he spent with his grandchildren Christina Pellas, Angela Gregory Williams, Caleb Gregory, Lucy Gregory and Brian Massey, as well as his great grandchildren and several nieces and nephews across the country.
Thanks be to God for the life and works of this man.
Funeral services will be conducted at 1pm, Friday, June 1 at the Manchester Funeral Home Chapel with Glann Lee and Charles Huff officiating.
Burial will follow in the Prairie Plains Cemetery.
Visitation with the Gregory family will be from 11am, Friday at service time at Manchester Funeral Home.
Manchester Funeral Home is honored to serve the Gregory family.
