Marshall Keeble

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Marshall Keeble (December 7, 1878, Murfreesboro, Tennessee – April 20, 1968, Nashville, Tennessee) was an African-American preacher of the Church of Christ, whose successful career notably bridged a racial divide in an important American religious movement prior to the American Civil Rights Movement. Keeble enjoys an almost unrivalled position as an African-American subject of hagiographical biography by white contemporaries within the movement of which Keeble was a member. A notable example of this is Roll Jordan Roll by fellow minister and longtime Keeble associate J. E. Choate.

Keeble's first marriage, to Minnie Womack, a graduate of Fisk University High School, came in 1896. Their marriage lasted until her death on December 11, 1932. The couple produced five children, all of whom died in infancy, childhood, or early adulthood; all preceded Keeble in death.

At the age of 83, Keeble became a world traveler. On his first journey (summer of 1962), he and Lucien Palmer toured Palestine, then proceeded on to Nigeria, where Keeble preached day and night to large audiences.^[1] The second journey began in October, 1962, and took Keeble, Palmer, and Houston Ezell all the way around the world. Their first stop was Nigeria, where Keeble engaged in training preachers and preparing for the construction of the Nigerian Christian Secondary School in Ukpom. The main administrative building at NCSS is named Keeble Hall in his honor. The Christians in Nigeria also pleaded with Keeble to start a hospital there, and he relayed the plea from pulpits back in America. Partly as a result, the Nigerian Christian Hospital was founded in 1965. From Nigeria, the three travelers went on to Ethiopia, India, Singapore, and Korea, among other places. Finally, they returned home via Hawaii and Los Angeles.^[2]

Keeble was also primarily responsible for the establishment of several Christian schools, of which the primary surviving example is Southwestern Christian College. Keeble's preaching was primarily of the "fire and brimstone" style typical of many evangelical groups of the era.

Keeble was married to his second wife, Laura Catherine Johnson on April 3, 1934 by long-time friend and Keeble's fellow notable Church of Christ preacher Benton Cordell Goodpasture. Keeble died in 1968.

Laura Keeble was born on August 6, 1898. She was baptized into Christ in 1913. She died at age 108 on March 5, 2007.

[edit] Notes and references

^ For details about this first journey, see Mary Campbell, From Mule Back to Super Jet.
^ The information in this paragraph comes from J. E. Choate, Roll Jordan Roll (Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 1968), 132-139.

Another semi-biographical account is His Hand and Heart: The Wit and Wisdom of Marshall Keeble by Willie Cato.