The Rev. James O. McKinney

Published 12:00 am Friday, April 25, 2008

The Rev. James Ovel McKinney, 91, of Auburn died at 10:30 a.m. April 22, 2008, at his residence.

The Sugar Grove native was a Baptist minister. He was a member of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church and served as pastor of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Russellville for 43 years. He served as moderator and superintendent of Sunday School Congress of the Union District Association and received a doctorate of ministry degree from the Bowling Green Bible College. He was the first black citizen in Logan County to serve on a grand jury and visit the Holy Land. He was commissioned twice as a Kentucky Colonel. He was also a former Auburn city commissioner, former president of the NAACP and Human Rights in Logan County and was named Logan County’s Citizen of the Year in 1987. He was a son of the late Benjamin Reavly McKinney and Eliza Beason McKinney and the husband of the late Kathy Bell Boyd McKinney. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Ruby Ordean McKinney Tisdale; a son-in-law, Booker Toliver Tisdale Jr.; two brothers, George and Victor McKinney; four sisters, Ordean and Searcy McKinney, Eunice Cook and Edith Mae Ray; maternal grandparents, Frank and Betty Claypool; paternal grandparents, George McKinney and Angeline Bailey McKinney; two grandchildren, Booker Toliver “Bird” Tisdale III and Adrian McKinney; and two great-grandchildren, Christopher Alexander Kees and Ruby Pearl Grinter.

Funeral is at 1 p.m. Monday at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Auburn, with burial in Macedonia Church Cemetery in Auburn. Visitation is from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Auburn and is begins at 11 a.m. Monday at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church. Gatewood and Sons Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Survivors include three sons, James Henry McKinney of Russellville, George Raymond McKinney of Springfield, Tenn., and Joseph Lee McKinney of Oakland, Calif.; 16 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.