By Bill Dodd
Luther Blackmon was an interesting, colorful, and in some ways a unique man. He grew up on a farm in Texas, migrating to Houston while still a very young man. Even though he quit school in the ninth grade, he could quote line after line of Shakespeare and possessed a massive English vocabulary; furthermore, his lack of formal education did not deter him from taking on some of the champions of evolution in Life Magazine, moreover, he shared the same pulpit with the illustrious Roy E. Cogdill in the 1940s.
Luther was a very effective preacher in the pulpit. He was very dynamic as well as colorful. Popular audiences, as well as preachers, enjoyed hearing Luther preach. He -was also a very effective writer. Luther’s fort6 as a writer, in my estimation, was his ability to write pithy and punchy short articles. He once said that the advantage of the short article is: “You will not come as near writing yourself into a corner and thus proving that you did not know what you were talking about in the first place.”
It has been mentioned already that Luther was a very colorful man; he possessed a delightful sense of humor. His notorious exploits of absent-mindedness gives additional color to his life. Even though he could quote massive amounts of Scripture, his capacity for forgetfulness sometimes rendered him hilarious. One such example of this hilarity surrounds the story of his borrowing an “A” model car and giving a number of young ladies a ride to a gospel meeting only to forget the car and the young ladies, catching a ride home with someone else. He also had to mount a compass in his car to keep from getting lost.
Some may raise some questions pertaining to my credentials for writing his biography. Let me say forthrightly that I don’t have any credentials. I will say that I loved and appreciated Luther Blackmon. I knew him for a short time in Northern Ohio (1967,68). Brother Blackmon was an encouragement to me when I was a struggling young preacher. He thought that he saw some things in me that others had not seen, or at least if they had, for the most part, they kept it to themselves. Perhaps someone more qualified for such an undertaking would come forth in the near future for such an undertaking. This needs to be done while some of his contemporaries are stiff living. In the meantime, I would appreciate receiving any information about the life of Luther Blackmon. Also, I would appreciate some critiquing of his abilities as a preacher and writer. Any advice would also be appreciated.
Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 8, p. 235
April 20, 1989