Luther Ray

 Father of a Century

Johnclarestokes 

We cannot fathom how he did not make it to

A century

We truly thought that lean raising in Homewood,

Mississippi 

Would prepare him for making it easily

He never tired when working the long

acre rows with the sharp hoe

Digging the endless stretch of posts 

Hole after hole

Waiting patiently for the boy so slow

And when he preached and sang

He was so much larger than his frame

Thanks to him so many to heaven came

This day the son upon sixty-eight will reflect

Cinch the old bolo tie and reminisce 

The father of a century he'll always miss.

Rev Luther Ray Stokes, would be 102 this Oct 16.