| REMEMBERING MCKEE
Glendon and Eupha Hicks McKee say hello to their many
friends
By Bob Weaver
Rev. Glendon McKee retired in 1997 from the United Methodist Church after
55 very active years. Despite numerous health problems, his concerns are
still for the people of this community. Spending a few days in Minnie
Hamilton Health Care Center, he said "It's been tough not to be able to walk.
My legs are just too wobbly."
"I really love to preach the message of Christ," he said. "I would like to have
done it up to my last day on earth."
Several years ago we wrote about Rev. McKee in one of the early printed
editions of The Hur Herald.
CARRYING THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST - "The world has an open sore. A great
wound across it, and that wound is not healing. And we think about
humankind resisting the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus and be
healed." Word sermonized 40 years ago by Reverend Glendon McKee at the
Mt. Zion Methodist Church.
After 55 years as a rural preacher for the Methodist Church, Reverend
McKee is officially retiring after a devoted and persevering career preaching
in Calhoun and Gilmer Counties. He retired from teaching English at Calhoun
High School, where he touched the lives of many students, after 29 years of
service. "I have made many friends along the way," he commented.
He was born on February 13, 1915 at Millstone into a family of three sisters
and two brothers. His parents were George and Nora Ball McKee. In his
early youth he said that from the hill behind his house he could see half the
world, and never did he expect to be as far away from his house as he could
see in either direction.
Reverend McKee married Eupha Hicks, daughter of Carl and Kate Smith
Hicks in 1939, recently celebrating their 58th anniversary. They have two
children, Roanna M. Stump of Grantsville and Reverend Roger G. McKee of
Weston.
"After graduation, Glendon and I both went to work at Spencer State
Hospital," recalls Eupha. "I was working to get money to go to Mountain
State Business College. We had to sign a register when we left the building
and I asked him one evening if he wanted me to sign him out. He said, 'No,'
but later he followed me out and asked me to go to a movie." McKee later
went to Parkersburg to work a stint at the Viscose and Eupha attended
business college.
He describes himself as a shy, bashful boy. His brother, Gorden McKee, tells
the story about taking the young preacher coon hunting. "He liked to go with
the boys and on this particular night he went with Paul Bush and myself. In
his hurry he forgot to bring his flashlight and he, being a preacher, was a
little particular with his shoes and clothing. Every time we came to a mud
hole, one of us would turn around and flash the light in his eyes and he
would wade right through. It was fun for awhile."
After serving on the Glenville-Normantown circuit for five years, he has
spent most of his ministry in Calhoun County as pastor of the Mt. Zion United
Methodist Church for 49 years in addition to the long-standing rural charge
which currently includes Hur, St. Paul, Bryner Chapel and Sand Ridge.
"CLEANSE MEN AND MAKE THEM WHOLE" - Glendon McKee has always
been an omnipresence in my life, although years have gone by when we
have not seen or visited one another, in the darkest of days his quiet voice
spoke to me to hang on, believe and do good.
Beyond my childhood days of church-going he was the man who came to
Hur to marry and bury, and preach the Sunday sermons, transcending four
generations of my family. he has always been there for me to appreciate or
take for granted.
Quite frankly, he has been bigger than life, a granting of
status which he would surely deny.
In 1957, a student at Calhoun High, my friend Ron Lynch and I produced a radio program for WPAR about his life. (We still have the recording).
Thanks preacher, for your wonderful life...Bob Weaver, 1997.
Rev. Glendon McKee passed in 2004.
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