Rev. Wallace Roland Terry. Jr.

Funeral Services for Rev. Wallace Roland Terry Jr. will begin at 2:00 pm Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018, at Robert Barham Family Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Damon Williams officiating. Interment will follow at Bethel Southern Methodist Church Cemetery. Robert Barham Family Funeral Home is honored and privileged to be entrusted with the arrangements.

The Rev. Wallace Roland Terry Jr., 94, of Meridian, Miss., passed away Aug. 23, 2018, at Brookdale Assisted Living Center of Meridian.

Born Dec. 1, 1923, in Bailey, Miss., he surrendered his life to Christ at age 16, and had the heart of an itinerant preacher. He pastored a total of 21 churches, some simultaneously, within the Southern Methodist denomination during his lifelong ministry, which began in 1949.

He was also a leader, serving two terms as a vice president of the Southern Methodist denomination and as president of Southern Methodist College in Orangeburg, S.C., from 1959 to 1961. He played a pivotal role in acquiring the property on which the college has been located since 1961, and a dormitory was built in 1967 and named “Terry Hall” in his honor.

His ministry encompassed not only pastoring, counseling, visiting shut-ins, aiding the destitute and serving in administrative roles, but he was also a singer and pianist, loves of his from an early age.

Music infused his work and his family, from winning a singing contest at age 17 to leading his children to a love of music. His optimism and faith in God’s perpetual love and provision was borne out during his lifetime. He believed true wealth was in that faith and in authentic and sustainable relationships among family and friends.

He was among the youngest of 11 children born into a Mississippi farming family outside Meridian and joined the U.S. Army in June 1943. He served in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II where his first thoughts of full-time ministry centered on missions and service as a missionary pilot. He later earned his pilot’s license.

After his discharge as a sergeant in January 1946, he enrolled as a ministerial student at Bob Jones University, which was then located in Cleveland, Tenn. There he met his future wife, Apphia Adele Guillermin, in 1947 at the end of his freshman year, and just days before she was to graduate. Both 23 at the time, his education had been delayed by the war, hers by the premature death of her mother.

Together they raised seven children, and he retired from full-time ministry in 1994 as a pastor of Bethel SMC near his ancestral home in Bailey. He left retirement in 1998 to helm Antioch SMC in nearby Collinsville, Miss., twice over the next four years, retiring permanently in 2002.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 61 years, Apphia Guillermin Terry; grandson, John Ryan Haas-Terry; and granddaughter Eryn Sandifer Reddoch.

He is survived by his children Cynthia Sandifer (Rev. Robert) of Millbrook, Ala., Timothy Terry (Beverly) of Orlando, Fla., Paulette Sigler (Burke) of Marietta, Ga., Apphia Stephens (Brent) of Bailey, Miss., Sylvia Stephens (Jeff) of Kingwood, Texas, Wallace Terry III (Sara) of Holly Springs, Ga., Larry Terry of Kingwood, Texas, 15 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

He is also survived by sisters Hazel Terry and Eloise Terry, of Meridian, Miss., sister-in-law Jane Terry, also of Meridian, and many nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends from 5-7pm Friday, August 24, 2018 at the funeral home.