Reverend Aubrey Pate

Services for Reverend Aubrey Pate, 92, of Gladewater, will be held on Tuesday, October 16, 2012, at 10 A.M. at First Baptist Church with Reverend Bailey Harris, Reverend Ken Brumley, and Bill High officiating. Burial will be in East Mountain Cemetery with Reverend Roy Taylor officiating. L. Aubrey Pate was born on January 3, 1920, near Center, Texas, the youngest of thirteen children of John Daniel Pate, a Baptist preacher, and Modenia Peace Pate. He grew up on the family farm. At thirteen, he worked on a ranch with four of his older brothers. At the beginning of World War II, they built barracks for English airmen training in Texas. Before the Pearl Harbor attack, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. After aircraft mechanic school, he was stationed in the Panama Canal zone on patrol for enemy submarines. While on furlough in Louisiana, S/Sgt. Pate met Norma Spinks. In 1941, they were married at Thomasville Georgia, Air Base. He was assigned to the 53rd Fighter Bomber Group. That year he received word that his brother, Elvie, an infantry sergeant, had been killed in battle in France. Later their son, Michael was born while stationed in Georgia. After Aubrey"s discharge, he worked for a while as a surveyor for Sohio Oil in Kaplan, Louisiana. They farmed and raised cattle near Ringgold, Louisiana. He also worked in construction with a brother and a nephew. Their daughter, Marla, was born in 1952. Ordained to the ministry by Bistineau Baptist Church in Heflin, Louisiana, Aubrey was called as pastor in Clarence, Louisiana, in 1955. The church, a former army chapel, was remodeled. Until a pastor"s home was built in 1957, the family lived in a former schoolhouse. God gave them two fruitful years in Clarence. They moved to Trees, Louisiana, in 1957, where he was elected to the State Executive Board. While at Trees, Aubrey earned a BS degree from East Texas Baptist College in Marshall, Texas, in 1961 and the MRE at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth in 1965. Aubrey moved his family to East Texas in 1965 to serve as pastor of East Mountain Baptist Church, where they ministered for nineteen years. Active in the Gregg Baptist Association, he served as moderator for a term and participated in the Encounter California Crusade. Both the pastor and church were actively involved in the Rio Grande River ministry for seven years. They also built churches in Ohio over the course of several years. In 1980, the congregation voted to build a new home. By the time Brother Pate retired in 1984, their new church building had been completed with no debt. Brother and Mrs. Pate joined First Baptist Church in Gladewater in 1985. He was called as minister to the Sr. Adults in 1989. They worked as a team in this ministry for seventeen years. Cooperating with GAP Project Missions in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, FBC completed a children"s home, a medical clinic, and a dental clinic. Brother Billy Ray Parmer, GAP director, and Brother Pate were devoted friends and worked closely together until Brother Parmer"s death. Brother Pate never tired of doing missions in Mexico. He was a craftsman with wood. He and his daughter, Marla, built a large bookcase and a china cabinet. He and his son-in-law, Bobby, completed several remodeling projects together. He preached many weddings and funerals during the years of his ministry. He loved his family and friends. He enjoyed good preaching, senior saints, old hymns, picking his banjo with other pickers, hunting, riding horses, plowing his mule, and picking and shelling peas. He lived a long and productive life, sustained by God"s grace. He is survived by Norma, his wife of 68 years; son, Michael Pate of North San Juan, California; a daughter, Marla Stewart and her husband, Bobby, of East Mountain; daughter-in-law, Pratiti Beldner of San Francisco, California; grandsons, David Blackard of Louisville, Kentucky; Frank Pate and wife Grace of Gladewater; Josh Stewart of East Mountain; Moon Pate of San Francisco, California; granddaughter, Joy Pate of North San Juan, California; great-grandchildren, Sami Rose and Jeremy Stewart; sister-in-law, Helen Pate of Ringgold, Louisiana; and several nieces and nephews. If so desired, memorials may be made to First Baptist Church, Retire the Debt, P.O. Box 1444, Gladewater, Texas 75647. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 P.M. on Monday, October 15, 2012, at Croley Funeral Home in Gladewater.