Gospel preacher listed in Preachers of Today, Vol. 1, 1952, 274.

Rue Porter Roland
Rudolph "Rue" Porter, 77, was laid to rest in Neosho, Mo., August 19 [29] after an inspiring memorial service in the last new chapel where he attended a dedication service recently in his home city of 39 years residence. He died early August 25 in a rest home near Joplin. Don Deffenbaugh, Neosho; and Sterl Watson, St. Louis, Mo., officiated. Watson praised his sacrificial and undivided dedication to gospel preaching, teaching, debating, and writing. Watson said that Rue Porter preached in 46 states, baptized 10,000 into Christ, and that during the great Depression was not a "dropout" from continuous preaching, for "when there was not a dollar offered or paid he preached with the same enthusiasm and full devotion as when given remuneration." Porter edited The Christian Worker of Wichita, Kansas, for 12 years. All his surviving family was present, being Mrs. Nancy Porter, his widow; T. Coy Porter, gospel preacher of Nashville, Tenn. (Eastview); Dr. Vonne Porter, Dean of Southern College of Optometry, Memphis; and his only daughter, Mrs. Noline Ricketts of Kansas City.---Omar L. Bixler, Firm Foundation, Sept. 12, 1967, p. 587.

Roland Rue Porter was born near Green Forest (Boone County) Arkansas, April 4, 1890. His mother was a widow and the family knew the hardships of life in that Ozark Mountain area in the early years of this century. The community offered little in the way formal education, but Brother Porter seems to have made good use of what was available. His great accomplishments as a gospel preacher, writer, editor, and debater proved that in every respect he was a well educated man. In July, 1908 he obeyed his Lord in the first principles of the gospel, and soon began to take an active part in the work of The Church. He was baptized by James Brinkley, a gospel preacher in Green Forest who was also a blacksmith. He was married to Nancy Thomason on May 21, 1913, and four children were born to them. They are: Roy Doy, who died in 1939; Noline (Mrs. Jack Ricketts) T. Coy and Dr. V.F. Porter. On January 31, 1911 he preached his first sermon in a rural community near Harrison, Arkansas and he kept busy to the end of his life. His preaching carried him into at least thirty of the U.S. states where he immersed about eight thousand people into Christ, including all his own family. Like many other preachers he had to provide a part of his own support, which he did, working as a carpenter. Most of his preaching was in meeting work, but he did do some local work in Bristow, Oklahoma from 1919 to 1928. While there, he not only helped to build a strong church there, but helped in the planting of the New Testament church throughout Northeastern Oklahoma. In 1931 he moved to Neosho, Missouri, where he made his home to the end of life. He preached the gospel on more than fifty radio stations in all parts of the nation. He wrote for several different papers, and served this paper (The Christian Worker) as its editor for some years, beginning in September 1955. He also wrote a number of books and tracts and had the pleasure of knowing that some of these led some to The Lord. He lived in an age when gospel preachers either defended what they taught, or were forced "out of business." He stayed "in business!" In more than 40 debates he met some of the most capable exponents of error in the various sects, including W.E. Sherril, Manuel A. Welch, W. C. Austin, Vernon Barr, and W. Carl Ketcherside. Brother Porter was held in high esteem by his fellow preachers, and was a close personal friend to many of them. I remember hearing C. L. Wilkerson, who was a close personal friend, speak many times of his greatness. I never knew him well but did meet him several times in the late years of his life. I first met him in a rural community West of Mammoth Springs, Arkansas in the summer of 1930. I had been in two meetings in central Arkansas and was on my way to another in Grove, Oklahoma. In Mammoth Springs I learned that Brother Porter was in this meeting, and that my route went right by the place where it was being held. It was late in the afternoon, so I stopped to hear him preach. He invited me to spend the night with him, which I did, and it came at a most opportune time for me, for the depression had started and my support had been quite meager in those meetings. I had planned to sleep in my car that night, He not only made it possible for me, a stranger, to have a good nights lodging, but also a good breakfast the next morning. I never forgot that kindness. Younger preachers, as well as those no longer "younger", should remember what his generation has done for us. Far better than I, he knew what meager support meant - but I was learning. He tells of a time when illness laid him low for some months. All support was cut off, and he had a family to support. They actually reached the place where they did not know where the next meal was coming from, but this did not cause him to want to give up the preaching of The Word. He knew what it was to "endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Brother Porter was a "preacher of The Book." Jack Shackleford says: "He regarded himself as one of the last "one book preachers." I never knew him when he could not quote any verse or verses from either the Old or the New Testament. His son, T. Coy, also a gospel preacher, writes: "On several occasions I have, without his knowing it, counted the number of passages he quoted in a sermon. A very conservative estimate would be that he quotes a passage a minute. It would probably be more accurate to estimate that he quotes no fewer than sixty verses per sermon. His remarkable memory of Scripture is, to the thinking of many, his strongest asset. Undoubtedly this ability to give book, chapter, and verse, and quote the passage itself, has enabled him to convert many people who would not have been converted by a preacher who was less familiar with the Bible." ---Lloyd Smith, Gospel Preachers of Yesteryear, pp. 272-74.

Note: Son of David Newton & Belle F. ( ) Porter; married 1913 Nancy A. Thomason Nov 1891 - 1982]
OZARK - Rue Porter, 77, Neosho, a Church of Christ minister 57 years and former member of the Arkansas legislature, died at 6:30 a.m. today in a nursing home in Webb City. Mr. Porter preached in 46 states and throughout southwest Missopuir. for many years, he served as editor of the Christian Worker in Wichita, Kan. A native of Boone County, Ark., he is survived by his wife, Nancy; two sons, Coy, Nashville, Tenn. And Vonne, Memphis, Tenn,; a daughter, Mrs. Noline Ricketts, Kansas City; 10 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Harris of Ozark will announce arrangements. --Contributor: Mabel Phillips (47551250)

Gospel preacher listed in Preachers of Today, Vol. 1, 1952, 274.

Rue Porter Roland
Rudolph "Rue" Porter, 77, was laid to rest in Neosho, Mo., August 19 [29] after an inspiring memorial service in the last new chapel where he attended a dedication service recently in his home city of 39 years residence. He died early August 25 in a rest home near Joplin. Don Deffenbaugh, Neosho; and Sterl Watson, St. Louis, Mo., officiated. Watson praised his sacrificial and undivided dedication to gospel preaching, teaching, debating, and writing. Watson said that Rue Porter preached in 46 states, baptized 10,000 into Christ, and that during the great Depression was not a "dropout" from continuous preaching, for "when there was not a dollar offered or paid he preached with the same enthusiasm and full devotion as when given remuneration." Porter edited The Christian Worker of Wichita, Kansas, for 12 years. All his surviving family was present, being Mrs. Nancy Porter, his widow; T. Coy Porter, gospel preacher of Nashville, Tenn. (Eastview); Dr. Vonne Porter, Dean of Southern College of Optometry, Memphis; and his only daughter, Mrs. Noline Ricketts of Kansas City.---Omar L. Bixler, Firm Foundation, Sept. 12, 1967, p. 587.

Roland Rue Porter was born near Green Forest (Boone County) Arkansas, April 4, 1890. His mother was a widow and the family knew the hardships of life in that Ozark Mountain area in the early years of this century. The community offered little in the way formal education, but Brother Porter seems to have made good use of what was available. His great accomplishments as a gospel preacher, writer, editor, and debater proved that in every respect he was a well educated man. In July, 1908 he obeyed his Lord in the first principles of the gospel, and soon began to take an active part in the work of The Church. He was baptized by James Brinkley, a gospel preacher in Green Forest who was also a blacksmith. He was married to Nancy Thomason on May 21, 1913, and four children were born to them. They are: Roy Doy, who died in 1939; Noline (Mrs. Jack Ricketts) T. Coy and Dr. V.F. Porter. On January 31, 1911 he preached his first sermon in a rural community near Harrison, Arkansas and he kept busy to the end of his life. His preaching carried him into at least thirty of the U.S. states where he immersed about eight thousand people into Christ, including all his own family. Like many other preachers he had to provide a part of his own support, which he did, working as a carpenter. Most of his preaching was in meeting work, but he did do some local work in Bristow, Oklahoma from 1919 to 1928. While there, he not only helped to build a strong church there, but helped in the planting of the New Testament church throughout Northeastern Oklahoma. In 1931 he moved to Neosho, Missouri, where he made his home to the end of life. He preached the gospel on more than fifty radio stations in all parts of the nation. He wrote for several different papers, and served this paper (The Christian Worker) as its editor for some years, beginning in September 1955. He also wrote a number of books and tracts and had the pleasure of knowing that some of these led some to The Lord. He lived in an age when gospel preachers either defended what they taught, or were forced "out of business." He stayed "in business!" In more than 40 debates he met some of the most capable exponents of error in the various sects, including W.E. Sherril, Manuel A. Welch, W. C. Austin, Vernon Barr, and W. Carl Ketcherside. Brother Porter was held in high esteem by his fellow preachers, and was a close personal friend to many of them. I remember hearing C. L. Wilkerson, who was a close personal friend, speak many times of his greatness. I never knew him well but did meet him several times in the late years of his life. I first met him in a rural community West of Mammoth Springs, Arkansas in the summer of 1930. I had been in two meetings in central Arkansas and was on my way to another in Grove, Oklahoma. In Mammoth Springs I learned that Brother Porter was in this meeting, and that my route went right by the place where it was being held. It was late in the afternoon, so I stopped to hear him preach. He invited me to spend the night with him, which I did, and it came at a most opportune time for me, for the depression had started and my support had been quite meager in those meetings. I had planned to sleep in my car that night, He not only made it possible for me, a stranger, to have a good nights lodging, but also a good breakfast the next morning. I never forgot that kindness. Younger preachers, as well as those no longer "younger", should remember what his generation has done for us. Far better than I, he knew what meager support meant - but I was learning. He tells of a time when illness laid him low for some months. All support was cut off, and he had a family to support. They actually reached the place where they did not know where the next meal was coming from, but this did not cause him to want to give up the preaching of The Word. He knew what it was to "endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Brother Porter was a "preacher of The Book." Jack Shackleford says: "He regarded himself as one of the last "one book preachers." I never knew him when he could not quote any verse or verses from either the Old or the New Testament. His son, T. Coy, also a gospel preacher, writes: "On several occasions I have, without his knowing it, counted the number of passages he quoted in a sermon. A very conservative estimate would be that he quotes a passage a minute. It would probably be more accurate to estimate that he quotes no fewer than sixty verses per sermon. His remarkable memory of Scripture is, to the thinking of many, his strongest asset. Undoubtedly this ability to give book, chapter, and verse, and quote the passage itself, has enabled him to convert many people who would not have been converted by a preacher who was less familiar with the Bible." ---Lloyd Smith, Gospel Preachers of Yesteryear, pp. 272-74.

Note: Son of David Newton & Belle F. ( ) Porter; married 1913 Nancy A. Thomason Nov 1891 - 1982]
OZARK - Rue Porter, 77, Neosho, a Church of Christ minister 57 years and former member of the Arkansas legislature, died at 6:30 a.m. today in a nursing home in Webb City. Mr. Porter preached in 46 states and throughout southwest Missopuir. for many years, he served as editor of the Christian Worker in Wichita, Kan. A native of Boone County, Ark., he is survived by his wife, Nancy; two sons, Coy, Nashville, Tenn. And Vonne, Memphis, Tenn,; a daughter, Mrs. Noline Ricketts, Kansas City; 10 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Harris of Ozark will announce arrangements. --Contributor: Mabel Phillips (47551250)