Rusk County Baptist deacon passes

September 14, 1913 -- September 26, 2007

Each of us have an appointment we must keep, a time when we will say to Death, “Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?” On September 26th at approximately 10:15 a.m., Charlie Leroy Vaughn passed from the walks of this life at the age of 94 years and 12 days. He had long, full and good life. He left it rejoicing in the hope of eternal life.

My Dad was a farmer, a carpenter, and a Baptist deacon. But many people who knew him, knew him as a singer. Of all the songs he sang and loved (and a few he wrote), he requested only two to be sung at his funeral -- “That Sweet Home”, No. 549 in The Sacred Harp (Cooper edition) and “How Great Thou Art”. He was a descendant of Vaughn and Parker Baptist families who settled in Rusk County in the early to mid 1850s. Some of them were associated with the Shiloh Baptist Church and some with Mt. Carmel. Some members of these families constituted the Smyrna Baptist Church in August 1873. My Dad united with this church nearly 60 years later, in 1932, was baptized by W. G. Griffith. He continued as a member until his death. He was ordained a deacon in 1955.