The GOWDY Family
in Mississippi
Obituaries from Blue Mountain Newspapers
SOUTHERN SENTINEL - November 9, 1967
R. L. GOWDY DIES IN WRECK
Robert Lee Gowdy, Jr., native of this county, and who was a
minister in the Lexington, KY, area, was instantly killed in a car wreck on Saturday,
October 28. He graduated from Centre High School in this county in 1953.
Burial was on Tuesday of last week.
The following is an article from the Sunday Herald-Leader, of Lexington, Kentucky.
SHELBYVILLE, Ky. -- A Fayette County minister and a Louisville man were killed Saturday when their cars collided head-on 6.7 miles east of here on Interstate 64.
State Trooper Robert Darby identified the victims as the Rev. Robert Lee Gowdy Jr., 32 of Richmond Road Route 5, Fayette County, pastor of the Bently Memorial Baptist Church and Billy Lee Brun, 37, of 1403 Whirlaway Drive, Louisville, an employee of the Robert E. McKee Contracting Co., Louisville.
The trooper said Mr. Gowdy's car was traveling west toward Louisville on I-64 about 1:30 p.m. and had moved into the passing lane when it collided head-on with Brun's car, traveling in the opposite direction on the wrong side of the median.
The Rev. Mr. Gowdy's family reported that the minister was en route to Louisville to attend a fellowship meeting.
Shelby County Coroner Dr. K. E. Ellis said both men died of head wounds and internal injuries. Brun was dead on arrival at about 1:45 p.m. at King's Daughters Hospital here.
Trooper Darby said the Rev. Mr. Gowdy's body was pinned in the wreckage of his car for approximately 90 minutes while the Shelby County Rescue Squad worked to pull it out.
Mr. Gowdy was graduated from the Mississippi High School in 1953 and from Lexington Baptist College in 1961. He was ordained to the ministry in 1960 at Thomas Baptist Church in Mississippi and came to Bentley Memorial Baptist Church, Fayette County, in 1961. He was a native of DeSoto County, Miss.
Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Rebekah Frances Ayres Gowdy; a son, Robert Keith Gowdy, and a daughter, Miss Teresa Kathryn Gowdy, Fayette County; his parents, R. L. and Tina Gowdy, Sr., and a brother, Paul Gowdy, Ripley, Miss.; two sisters Mrs. Gene Johnson, Falkner, Miss., and Mrs. John Lindsey, Hernando, Miss.