Published: Monday, October 1, 2007
Humbard, televangelist, eulogized
In 1952, the itinerant
preacher was inspired to use television to evangelize.
AKRON (AP) — The Rev. Rex Humbard was remembered Sunday at a memorial service for a ministry that grew from revival tents to the new medium of television, a pioneer who reached a worldwide audience larger than any evangelist in the 1970s.
About 550 people gathered for Humbard's "Home Going Celebration" at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, just a few miles from the Cathedral of Tomorrow, a 5,000-seat nondenominational church where he broadcast Sunday services.
"Rex was focused on one thing: to tell people they need to be saved," said Humbard's brother-in-law Wayne Jones, who worked in the televangelist's ministry. Humbard, 88, died of natural causes Sept. 21 at a South Florida hospital near his Lantana home. The last time Jones saw Humbard, he was in a weakened state and said: "I told the Lord when I can't win any souls, it's time to go home."
The memorial service was outdoors held under a large white tent, a fitting setting for the former itinerant preacher. After a decade preaching on the road, Humbard settled in Akron in 1952, the same year he saw one of the first television programs broadcast live in Northeast Ohio. He watched a Cleveland Indians-New York Yankees baseball game through the window of a downtown department store and was inspired.
The son of Pentecostal evangelists, Humbard saw the power of television, Jones said, recalling how Humbard visited a TV station manager a dozen times — refusing to give up on his vision — before he agreed to put him on the air.
Humbard began with a renovated theater in 1953 and later the $4 million domed Cathedral of Tomorrow, which included velvet drapes, a hydraulic stage and a cross covered with thousands of red, white and blue light bulbs. The broadcast, also called "Cathedral of Tomorrow," developed into a mixture of preaching and music, with Humbard's wife, Maude Aimee, an accomplished gospel singer, and the Cathedral Quartet as regular performers. The Humbards' children also performed.
By 1979, the show was broadcast in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Far East, Australia and Latin America. His syndicated program appeared on more TV stations in America than any other program by 1970.
Humbard's memorial service was filled with a mixture of tears, laughter and song with Larry Gatlin performing "Great is Thy Faithfulness" and "I'll Fly Away," which had the audience clapping and singing along. The preacher's rose-covered casket was carried in to a bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace," and televangelist Benny Hinn led the funeral service, calling Humbard's family onto the stage to sing "Alleluia."
Humbard is survived by his wife, who was not well enough to attend the funeral, and their four children, Rex Jr., Don, Charles and Elizabeth. Private burial was planned for today at Rose Hill Burial Park in Akron.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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