Joel S. McGraw from Huntsville, AL, called me around 10 o'clock and almost immediately a call came from Harold Kelley, of Bessemer, AL, informing me that the Rev. Mr. O. N. Todd, Jr. had died at 7 p. m. on Tuesday, July 26, in a retirement home in Riverchase, Alabama, near Hoover, Alabama.
O. N. Todd, Jr. was 93 years old. Had he lived to August 14, he would have been 94.
He passed away without any pain or suffering. He took his last breath around 7 p. m., Tuesday, July 26.
O. N. Todd, Jr., was one of the greatest men I have ever known. He was loving, compassionate, and caring for all people. He was my pastor when I was a teenager in Birmingham. In fact, he baptized me in Six Mile Creek. I remember it was very cold water, and a number of us were baptized that Sunday afternoon, including Jerry Waid.
When I was in the Marine Corps Band at Quantico, VA, O. N. and Lois, Olney and Roy Samuel paid me a visit me in the summer of 1955. Our band and drum and bugle corps were housed in the brick barracks. We lived there, practiced daily in a large rehearsal hall on the second floor, and ate in the same building in the mess hall. Our barracks was located only a few blocks from the FBI Academy. The Todds visit made a great impression me, and I knew he loved me and was interested in my life and future. My pastor and his family had cared enough to visit me. Just remembering that visit brings back a flood of wonderful memories.
O. N. Todd was a gifted preacher and singer. He and George Beverly Shea were undoubtedly the two best male vocal soloists in the 20th Century. O. N.'s singing was a spiritual experience because you could understand every word and you knew he lived what he sang and preached.
When Oral Roberts came to Birmingham in 1950, O. N. Todd was the chairman of the committee that invited Brother Roberts to hold a tent crusade at the Alabama Fair Grounds near Central Park. I was deeply moved by Oral's testimony, preaching, and praying for the sick during that crusade.
The funeral arrangements for O. N. Todd are yet to be finalized. No doubt it will be on Saturday, but I am not sure. In all probability it will be at Rideout's Gardendale Chapel in Gardendale, AL.
(205) 631-6252
2029 Decatur Highway
Gardendale, AL 35071
Brother Todd, as we called him, pastored the First Pentecostal Holiness Church for more than 30 years. Sometime in the 70s, he and Lois became missionaries to Korea when B. E. Underwood was the executive director of World Missions, and later became the Field Director for Asia. When they returned home from the mission field, he planted a church in Gardendale called The Lord's Chapel.
As soon as I get the obituary and funeral arrangements I will inform you my readers.
It is almost midnight. It has been a long day for Melvine and me. I will report on that trip to Atlanta sometime next week.
Posted on
Wed, July 27, 2011
by Hugh Morgan