VINITA, June 11—Dr. W.L. Blackburn, Vinita pastor, is
retiring after 44 years in the ministry.
Pastor of the First Methodist church here, he has turned the
church over to new hands and he and Mrs. Blackburn will
retire to a home recently purchased in Tulsa.
“For six months I’m not going to do anything but putter
around the house and yard,” he said. “After that I haven’t
decided what I’m going to do.”
He has spent 10 and one-half years of the 44 in Vinita as
district superintendent and pastor.
He was born in 1884 in Gainsville, Texas and was graduated
from Southwestern university, Georgetown, Texas, in 1907. He
received a bachelor of divinity from Yale university in
1914.
First ordained a deacon in 1910 and an elder in 1913, he
became presiding elder of the Durant district in 1918,
serving three years. From 1921 to ’28 he held pastorates at
Centenary church, Tulsa; Hugo and Camden, Ark. He was
conference secretary in 1923.
He became presiding elder of the Vinita district in 1928.
From 1931 to 1942 he held pastorates at Ada, St. Paul’s in
Muskogee, and became district superintendent of the Vinita
district in 1942. He held this post until 1948 when he
became pastor at Holdenville and returned here as pastor in
1950.
The Blackburns have two sons. Dr. Charles Blackburn is on
the staff of the Mayo clinic, Rochester, Minn. The other,
Arnold Blackburn, is head of the organ department and
professor of organ at Kentucky university, Lexington.
From The Oklahoma, 6/12/1952
Donated by:
Emily Jordan
