NOTED BAPTIST MINISTER, PASSES AWAY AT AGE 86

Floyd Wilson Lambert, 86, one of Middle Tennessee’s most notable Missionary Baptist minis-ters, passed away last Thursday,

May 10, 1990.

Funeral services for the man known to nearly all Macon Countians as “Brother Lambert” were held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Siloam Missionary Baptist

Church with Elders J. D. Sanders,

Kenneth Massey, and James W. Briley officiating. All Missionary Baptist ministers were named Honorary Pallbearers.

He was buried in Siloam

Cemetery.

Surviving family

members include his wife, Tennie, and two nephews, Almer Lambert, Scottsville, and Jake Lambert, Hendersonville.

Brother Lambert was born in Western Macon County on December 19, 1903, to James M. and Donnie Howell Lambert. After receiving his public school education in Macon and Sumner Counties, he attended Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and then received a scholarship to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

On August 5, 1923, he married

Miss Tennie Leath, who was, he said, was not only a devoted wife but also “a preacher’s wife”.

Brother Lambert was converted at Siloam Missionary Baptist Church in August, 1921, and was called to the ministry in the spring of 1927. He pastored many churches and served in many church offices. He was clerk of the Wiseman Baptist Association from 1945 until 1952, and held the same office with the Siloam Association from 1953 until 1961.

He was also moderator of the Siloam Association from 1962 until 1977. He was a member of the Siloam Baptist Church for nearly 70 years. He was also a member of the Trammel Lodge No. 436 F & A M, and a 32 degree Sottish Rite Mason, Valley of Nashville.

In 1967, he was named Rural Minister of the Year by Progressive Farmer magazine. His extensive work in soil conservation in Macon County was also recognized in the magazine’s announcement of the honor.

In 1980, Brother Lambert published his memoirs in a book entitled Traveling Toward the Sunrise.

In it, he recounts many of the joys of being a country preacher, as well as some of the trials and tribulations.

In his book, Brother Lambert tells something of the magnitude of the job he did in his first fifty years of preaching. He said he witnessed about 3,200 conversions «in meetings at the churches where I have pastored, or helped in revivals”. He estimated he baptized about 1,500 people, conducted

more than 2,500 funerals, and “united in marriage” about 350 couples.

And, he wrote, “I have tried to preach about 8,500 times,”

” mosly in country churches in “five counties in Tennessee and two in Kentucky”.

As he ended the story of his life up until 1980 in Traveling Toward the Sunrise, Brother Lambert wrote these words and it seems fitting to quote them here:

“In bringing to a close my biography, may I admonish you all to stand firm on the principles that have come down to us through the ages. Hold to the truth and walk in the old paths wherein our Blessed Savior trod.

God Bless you all.”